Janika Loiv and Emil Hasund win the tough time-trial climb of the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2023

The second stage of the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2023 offered the classic time trial climb to the Antenas del Albir. An exhausting stage in which the leaders acted as such and both the Estonian Janika Loiv and the Norwegian Emil Hasund repeated their victories.

Janika Loiv and Emil Hasund repeat victory and win the second stage of the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2023

The second stage of the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2023 started from the historic centre of Altea and offered a short route, 14 km with a 600 m gradient, but with a very tough finish in the popular Serra Gelada.

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Known as the hardest asphalt kilometre in Europe, the last stretch to the Antenas del Albir meant that the favourites had to push themselves to the limit to keep their leader's jerseys. And so it was. Estonian Janika Loiv set the best time in the women's race with 43:06. Spaniard Monica Lopez (CANNONDALE VAS ARABAY) was second at 37 seconds, while French rider Elodie Kuijper closed the podium at almost 2 minutes.

In the men's race, Norwegian Emil Hasund proved that the first day's performance was no coincidence and once again took the victory with a time of 34:27 minutes. Aleksei Medvedev was second, just 4 seconds behind Hasund, with Pawel Bernas closing the podium.

Here you can find the complete stage and overall standings.

Saturday will be an important day for the general classification as it is the turn for the queen stage of this edition with 60 km and 2100 m of elevation gain.