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Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Giorgia Bronzini took third place in the Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire, between Tadcaster and Harrogate. The former two-time road World Champion finished second in the small bunch sprint at the end of an aggressive, hilly, 122km race, behind American Coryn Rivera (Sunweb), 55 seconds behind winner Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) who was the sole remaining rider from the mid-race breakaway. 
“For me it was obviously a hard day, but a good day of course!” Bronzini said afterwards. “With a podium in this kind of race I can’t be anything other than happy. “The team worked really, really well, from the beginning,” she continued. “We had a plan. We wanted to get me over the hard climb, and until that moment we would follow the moves, get into the moves. At that point Claudia [Lichtenberg] was away; we had Claudia in front of us, and I did the climb with Audrey [Cordon-Ragot], trying not to let the gap get too big over the top. “We stayed in a little group behind the front group, but Lizzie and van der Breggen joined the break on the climb. None of us could go with them, so we stayed in the group with Audrey, and then we worked hard with Sunweb to catch Claudia’s group.” 
Lichtenberg led the group over the line at the top of the “Côte de Lofthouse,” earning herself the “Queen of the Mountain” classification, but the group split on the exposed roads that followed, and Armitstead’s winning move went clear. “I think Lizzie, van der Breggen and Dani King got away on a downhill, not a climb, but Claudia wanted to wait for us,” Bronzini explained. “We were really working hard with Sunweb, and the others sat on our wheel. We didn’t really understand the tactics of some other teams, but yeah, everyone can do whatever they think is the right thing to do. “In the finale I had Audrey with me, and she kept the speed high in the last kilometres. Shara Gillow attacked in the final kilometre, but we caught her with 300 to go. I launched my sprint with 200 to go, but I had to sit down because I was cramping a bit in my legs, and Rivera was able to come past me. 
“But I’m happy for the third place. I couldn’t do more than this today. We come home happy to be able to follow a plan without any doubt. I could trust my teammates 100% today. I had this feeling in the meeting yesterday too, so I’m very happy. “I’d just like to say thanks to them. This wasn’t a victory but we work towards finally having a win at some point.” Result Photo Credit: Jack Chevell  |
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