Eddy Merckx is dismantling the calendar in Scandinavia, it seems; not content with the victory in Vårgårda, the first two stages of the Ladies' Tour of Norway have both gone to the Cannibal.
As is often the case at the Tour of Norway, due to the undulating terrain, there are few opportunities to really shatter the bunch apart but there's a lot of technical section, and constant short drags, ramps and repechos that can create a split or can drop riders through force of attrition. Indeed, only 30 riders finished on the same time in
stage 1, with a lot of the credit for that level of attrition to be considered due to the wind, but also to Lucinda Brand who escaped on a narrow descent after the day's only QOM point, won by Kasia Niewiadoma, and as a number of small groups of riders crossed over to chase the Dutchwoman, until no more were capable of bridging the gap as the number had swollen to such an extent that more people were working than were able to get together to form another group to work behind. Kasia, having been a little below her peak and unable to perform at her combative best in the Giro and La Course, aimed to make up for it here, setting up another attack group at 30km to go, but with Rivera having made the junction to the Brand group, Sunweb now felt they held the cards in the sprint and were not happy with their representation in the group that the Pole had prised away from the front of the group, and worked to nullify the attack.
Boels' best sprinter on the startline, Amalie Dideriksen, had missed the move, so they worked to give Majerus, their best sprinter in the group, the chance to rest up, with Karol-Ann Canuel attempting a solo break which gained some time, with no team wanting to take the responsibility for chasing once Sunweb decided that a solo break did not need monitoring as aggressively - until the lead reached 30 seconds, whereupon Floortje Mackaij set off in pursuit. Mitchelton-Scott it was, in the end, who took the initiative which seemed odd given they were unlikely to contend the sprint with Annemiek or Amanda Spratt, and Gracie Elvin, whilst a strong all-rounder, surely had a deficit in a group with some of the very strong sprinters remaining. They took their time about it too, and at times it looked like the Quebecoise was going to be safe - but in the end, it was almost-but-not-quite Tony Martin in Cáceres territory, as the final 250m being uphill at 6-7% or so took all of the remaining strength out of Canuel's legs, and Vos led around her to win the sprint ahead of Emilia Fahlin, who benefited from the tough run-in ahead of some of the more pure sprinters finishing behind her, with Rivera 3rd, Elvin 4th and Chloe Hosking 5th - the Aussie was perhaps the best pure sprinter in the group, but also had but one helper - Soraya Paladin - and despite her best intentions was only just able to better her performance here last year where getting that final corner wrong cost her dearly and she finished 6th.
With Vos also having picked up bonus seconds giving her 9" lead over Rivera, 10" over Fahlin, 13" over Majerus and 16" over the bunch, the hillier second stage looked like being a job of 'who can out-cunning the fox?' The answer, of course, was nobody, but it wasn't for want of trying. Wind and rain was the order of the day, despite some record temperatures in some parts of Norway last month - so it became a tough race for the péloton, with crosswind sections to deal with as well as the bumpy terrain and an uphill sprint once more. The status quo from stage 1 seemed to be maintained at the intermediate checkpoints - Niewiadoma bossing the mountains points, Vos besting her usual rivals for the intermediates - Fahlin and Majerus - in the metas volantes. Despite some attempts by Cervélo and Sunweb to break the elastic, the group trimmed itself down only by attrition rather than splitting up in the weather, but Vos was able to sneak into a small but short-lived move to take some bonus seconds and deny the same reward to her GC rivals - though Rivera was attentive, Fahlin and Majerus missed the move and Eugenia Bujak snapped up the remaining time. Brand was part of the three riders that were also off the front as the péloton reached the second intermediate, having led out Rivera, and tried to go solo to similar effect to yesterday's stage, but it wasn't quite so successful this time around.
Brand tried again at 3km to go, but at this point Canyon-SRAM lost their collective minds, and proved what crazy effects several hours in the wind and the rain can have on your mental state; they set up Klein, Worrack and Ryan on the front to ride for - I can hardly believe I'm typing this - their aim of winning the sprint with Kasia Niewiadoma. Now, Kasia is in the GC here, but simultaneously Alexis Ryan made the group in stage 1 and can get over a few slopes, and is an almost infinitely stronger sprinter (Kasia's not Claudia Lichtenberg or Mara Abbott bad, but in a group with the likes of Vos in it, you'd back her perhaps only if the sprint was on the Mur de Huy). And certainly the finish was uphill, and the more uphill the finishing sprint, the more competitive Katie Unknown is capable of becoming. The Pole did her best, and the team did benefit from placement as a couple of sprinters who were unable to match the uphill burst of the QOM were immediately behind them, baulking some of their sprint rivals, but Vos was ever attentive, and got onto Niewiadoma's back wheel to use her as a perfect lead-out to a back-to-back stage win (Kasia did say Marianne made her feel like she was standing still, which is not surprising given the difference in sprint results between the two), while Emilia Fahlin also doubled up on second places as she came around the Pole's wheels on the line; the group splintered with the finish being more decisive time-wise than usual thanks perhaps to the poor weather; as a result the top 3 were also given a time gap on Majerus and Biannic at 3", Siggaard (a great result for her) at 7", Rivera, Buurman, Mackaij and Nilsson at 8", Susanne Andersen at 11", Alison Jackson at 16", Lotte Kopecky at 18", Gracie Elvin at 19" and the remainder at 20 seconds plus. Kasia herself in her post-race interview said "well it's a nice climb, nice finale, but not for me" and seemed a bit bemused but excited by the team's decision to back her in it.
Quite a bit of attrition in the riders completing the stages too; home rider Emilie Moberg withdrew on day 1, while Lucy Kennedy, who's been in the wars for much of her debut professional season, alternating promising performances with injury lay-offs, didn't take the start in Fredrikstad, and we also unfortunately lost both of the TIBCO riders I was most keen to see, Scandolara and Malseed, as well as two of the Astana riders, and half of the Norwegian and Swedish national teams. Going in to the final stage, Vos' lead is 18" over Fahlin, 28" over Niewiadoma, and 31" over Rivera and Majerus. Biannic is at 35" then Brand, Buurman and Mackaij at 40" so the main thing for WaowDeals will be managing Team Sunweb, who have three riders within 40" of her. Other teams will probably have to be prepared to lose in order to win, and gamble on making WaowDeals do the chasing to protect Vos.