Stage Two: Dixon climbs to victorypublished at 13:41 British Summer Time 19 June 2020
Wales’ Leah Dixon led a Team Tibco Silicon Valley 1-2 with Lauren Stephens in the second stage of the V-Women’s Tour in a hilltop finish in virtual Burton Dassett to take the overall lead of the three-stage race.
Kristen Faulkner almost locked out the podium for Tibco but was pipped to third place by the Isle of Man’s Lizzie Holden.
Stephens had led the break in the second of three ascents, going clear of the initial 10-racer breakaway group, and Dixon followed carrying out the team’s pre-race plan almost to the letter.
“It was just the perfect race,” said Dixon afterwards. “We had talked about it on the team call beforehand. We thought we could whittle the group down a bit on the first lap, and then on the second lap we would try and go hard to reduce the group further.”
The win put Dixon out in front of the general classification by 21 seconds from team-mate Faulkner with Holden in third ahead of Friday’s final stage, a 35-lap race of London’s Canary Wharf.