In the final Giro d'Italia Donne of her 16-year pro career, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) led the race from start to finish and won the general classification for the fourth time, celebrating her achievement on the podium following the finale stage 9 in Olbia.
“Winning the GC is always super special because you need to do it with a team. I did win it with different teams, this is the second one with Movistar, and I am super proud of my team to finish it off. It’s always stressful, but you have the team around you, that makes it special,” said Van Vleuten before receiving her fourth Giro winner’s trophy on the podium, flanked by Juliette Labous (Team DSM-Firmenich) in second place and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) in third.
The maglia rosa was never in trouble on the final stage from Sassari to Olbia which ended in a sprint finish despite numerous breakaways.
The last escapee, Alessia Vigilia (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), was caught at the five-kilometre mark, and in a chaotic sprint, Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) beat Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) and Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick Step) to take the stage win.
“I’m really, really happy, I have no words. All the team stayed close to me for all of these ten hard days and supported me every day, so I want to say thanks to all of them. The sprint was really hard and stressful, as always. We knew that it would be super hard and not easy to interpret. But I trusted my teammates who brought me to the front,” said stage winner Consonni.
“This Giro was not so good for me, I wasn’t in my best condition, but now I’m really happy to end it with this beautiful win. This is for Marta [Bastianelli], today is her last race, and I am really happy to share with her and all the girls of the team,” Consonni thanked her team and especially Marta Bastianelli who retires after the Giro Donne.
How it unfolded
The peloton stayed together for the first hour-and-a-half of the 127-kilometre stage. UAE Team ADQ had Sofia Bertizzolo and Silvia Persico sprint for first places at the intermediate sprint in Perfugas, but Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) managed to come third, taking a one-second bonification and putting her on the same time as UAE Team ADQ’s Erica Magnaldi.
As a result, the fourth place overall was decided on stage placing countback where Ewers had the upper hand.
When the live broadcast began with 68km to go, the attacks started to fly. Iris Monticolo (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) was the first to escape, but Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer (Israel-Premier Tech Roland) quickly passed her to go on a solo breakaway. Monticolo and Prisca Savi (BePink-Gold) tried to bridge to Kiesenhofer but were reeled in by the peloton.
Kiesenhofer extended her gap to 46 seconds but faltered on the long climb to Tempio Pausania and was eventually caught four kilometres from the hilltop town.
An attack by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) with 44km to go initiated a front group of fourteen that only last for a few kilometres, and counterattacks by Marie Le Net (FDJ-SUEZ) and Elena Pirrone (Israel-Premier Tech Roland) also came to naught.
A move by Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) lasted a bit longer, but she, too, was brought back 35km from the finish. After a brief lull, Vigilia went away with 27km to go, and the peloton seemed happy with her easily-controllable move. Vigilia was still 16 seconds ahead with six kilometres to go, but as the sprint trains cranked up the pace, she was caught one kilometre later.
In between the sprinters’ teams, Movistar Team went to the front to get Van Vleuten safely to the finish, and Uno-X Pro Cycling Team took the peloton on the last two kilometres. Team DSM-Firmenich and Canyon-SRAM came to the front, and their sprinter Chloé Dygert entered the finishing straight in third position with Consonni on her wheel.
Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing TeqFind) launched her sprint at the 300-metre mark, and Wollaston jumped just a little bit later. With 100 metres to go, Consonni passed Barbieri to take the lead, and although Vos tried to come around the Italian sprinter just before the finish, Consonni won the stage.
On top of the maglia rosa, Van Vleuten wins the maglia ciclamino for the points classification and the maglia verde for the best climber, and Movistar also win the team classification. Third-placed Realini wins the maglia bianca for the best U23 rider and the maglia azzurra for the best Italian.
Results
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