WomensCycling.net - race coverage, Stage 2

Trixi Worrack( Specialized-lululemon) won the second stage of Tour of Qatar from a two person break.

Worrack, who also made the break of the day on Wednesday in stage one, was able to make the break again in the famous cross-winds that make the Tour of Qatar what it is. Judith Arndt (GreenEDGE) bridge across to the break and secured valuable time bonuses to put her in the overall spot.

The Specialized-lululemon women along with the Green Edge team forced the race into the gutter from the stage start with the winning break escaping from the front group with 15km remaining in the race. Worrack and Judith Arndt went away with Adrie Visser and Kirsten Wild but were able to drop them with 12km to go and arrive at the finish line for a two-up sprint. Worrack won from Arndt and now sits in second place overall behind Arndt with one stage remaining.

While Arndt didn't take the stage, a 114.5km slog, made even more difficult by strong crosswinds, the German road champion picked up enough time bonuses on the road out of the Al Zubara Fort to take a two-second buffer into tonight's third and final stage.

Arndt, the team leader on the GreenEDGE-AIS squad was pipped on the line in a two-up sprint by fellow German Trixi Worrack from the rebadged Specialised-lululemon squad, what was formerly the women's HTC-Highroad squad.

Different stage, same conditions. Although this time coming from the north, strong winds were again present for day 2 of the Ladies’ Tour of Qatar. Gathered at the start by the splendid Al Zubarah Fort, the 88 remaining riders (one non-starter: Brennauer (SLU)) knew that they would face another demanding stage.

Indeed, straight from the start, just after noon, the pack broke up into several groups as soon as the first kilometres. Like on the previous day, a group of 11 and then 9 riders managed to power away. At km 28, the group including Van Dijk, white jersey Hosking, Worrack (all SLU), Golden jersey WIld (NED), Duster (RBW), Guderzo (MCG), Arndt, Gunnewijk (all GEW) and Bruins (SKI) could enjoy a 28" lead over a first slim bunch of chasers.

The first bonus sprint (km 23.5) was claimed by race leader Kirsten WIld ahead of Van Dijk and Arndt, while their advantage grew to 45". That gap grew to a maximum 1’20 at km 44 as the riders had to struggle against a strong head-wind.

Eventually, as the riders entered the final circuit around Madinat Al Shamal, the leaders lost ground with the wind blowing sideways. At the second intermediate sprint (first passage on the line, km 78), won by Arndt ahead of Wild and Van Dijk, the gap had dropped down to 20".

The leaders were finally caught at km 85 and over 40 riders were bunched together again. Despite several attempts, the pack remained together until the second passage on the line. At km 89, Worrack, Arndt, Wild and Visser managed to take off. Two kilometres later, the first two insisted and the gaps grew: 20" over Wild and Visser and 50" over the peloton.

Worrack's team-mate, Chloe Hosking wears the Best Young Rider's jersey. In the race for the teams' classification, Specialized-lululemon and GreenEDGE-AIS are equal on time on 16hrs13mins.03 secs, two minutes clear of the Netherlands national road squad.

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Results - Top 10 - click here to see full result

Position	Name	Team	Time/Gap
1	Trixi Worrack	Team Specialized Lululemon	3:05:37
2	Judith Arndt	GreenEdge-AIS	"
3	Adriana Visser	Skil-1t4i	0:02:20
4	Kirsten Wild	Netherlands	"
5	Shelley Olds	United States	0:02:49
6	Martine Bras	Netherlands	0:02:51
7	Marta Bastianelli	MCipollini Giambenini	"
8	Latoya Brulee	Topsport Vlaanderen-Ridley 2012	"
9	Jessie Maclean	GreenEdge-AIS	"
10	Valentina Scandolara	Italy	"

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General Classification Top 10 - click here to see full GC

Position	Name	Team	Time/Gap
1	Judith Arndt	GreenEdge-AIS	5:22:12
2	Trixi Worrack	Team Specialized Lululemon	0:00:02
3	Kirsten Wild	Netherlands	0:02:16
4	Elen Van Dijk	Team Specialized Lululemon	0:02:59
5	Chloe Hosking	Team Specialized Lululemon	0:03:00
6	Alexis Rhodes	GreenEdge-AIS	0:03:06
7	Loes Gunnewijk	GreenEdge-AIS	"
8	Jessie Maclean	GreenEdge-AIS	0:05:22
9	Elena Cecchini	MCipollini Giambenini	"
10	Sarah Düster	Stichting Rabo Women	"

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