Bossuyt overcomes Kopecky clash for surprise win on Vuelta Femenina stage 2

Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal) won stage 2 of La Vuelta Femenina after a clash with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in the finishing straight in San Cibrao das Viñas.

Bossuyt delivered a fine sprint from the reduced front group on the drag to the line, outpacing the FDJ United-Suez duo of Franziska Koch and Evita Muzic.

Kopecky had veered into the centre of the road as she launched her sprint, and she bumped against Bossuyt, pulling her foot out of the pedal in the process. The former world champion raised an arm in annoyance, but Bossuyt had simply held her line, and the Belgian was full value for her victory.

The commissaires later ruled that Kopecky had been at fault, and she was relegated from 15th to 36th place on the stage.

Koch is the new race leader after maillot rojo Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) was forced to abandon the Vuelta after she crashed in the peloton with 12km remaining.

The Vuelta peloton set off without Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike), who was a non-starter after suffering a broken collarbone on stage 1. There was a staccato start to proceedings, with a flurry of early attacks, but it took more than 50km for first real break to take shape.

Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Premier Tech), Andrea Casagranda (Vini Fantini-Bepink), Julie van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal), Marieke Meert (Lotto-Intermarché) and Léa Rondel (Mayenne-Monbana-Mypie) opened a maximum lead of just over a minute on the peloton, but their gap began to shrink on the approach to the intermediate sprint at Merca with just under 30km to go.

Schrempf led the remnants of the break there to pick up six bonus seconds, but the bunch was almost upon them, with Lidl-Trek pushing on the pace, and they were caught with 27km remaining.

The rolling terrain in Galicia lent itself to attacks, and Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) launched a fine effort with 14km remaining, opening a sizeable gap over the peloton.

Behind, meanwhile, race leader Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) crashed in the peloton, and the red jersey was forced to abandon shortly afterwards.

On rain-slicked roads in the finale, SD Worx-Protime led the pursuit of Aalerud, and their efforts also succeeded in severely reducing the size of the peloton, with barely 30 riders remaining in contention by the time they caught Aalerud with 3km to go on the steady climb towards the line.