Itzulia Women: Dominika Włodarczyk achieves first WorldTour win

Dominika Włodarczyk of UAE Team ADQ won stage 2 of the Itzulia Women, clinching her first WorldTour victory. She narrowly held off Mischa Bredewold from SD Worx-Protime, who sprinted from the chasing group and just passed Włodarczyk's late attack companion, Shirin van Anrooij of Lidl-Trek, to secure second place and defended her leader's jersey.

The race dynamics shifted when the peloton split on the Aretxabalgane climb, with a group of 24 riders forming that would compete on the last unclassified climb. Van Anrooij launched a decisive attack 6.9 kilometers from the finish line, prompting Włodarczyk to follow suit. Despite briefly dropping Van Anrooij over the top of the climb, the Dutch rider quickly rejoined, leading to a series of exchanges between the two until they reached the finishing stretch.

As the chase group closed in rapidly, Bredewold initiated a long sprint, but Włodarczyk managed to hold her off to secure the victory. Włodarczyk expressed her joy and surprise at her performance, saying, "I really wanted to perform well in the Ardennes Classics but caught a virus. So I came here with only one and a half weeks of training. I am really happy and surprised by my shape right now. Today, I had nothing to lose. I tried and I won, and I still cannot believe it."

She elaborated on her strategy: "I had in my mind that there is an uncategorised climb 7km from the finish line. I wanted to try there. Then, on the left side, I saw Shirin starting to attack and was like, 'OK, now or never'. I followed her wheel, and then suddenly I had really good legs. I had no idea where they came from because I had crashed early on the stage."

Following her win, Włodarczyk moved up to sixth overall but refrained from making commitments regarding the General Classification. "We wanted to take this race stage by stage because we had no idea how my shape is, where my legs are. When we come back to the hotel, we can start to think about tomorrow. But for now, I would just really like to enjoy this victory."