Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) won the Giro d'Italia Women, attacking on the last climb of the race, dropping Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) and bridging to a front group consisting of Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek).
Niedermaier had attacked with 80km to go, with Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black bridging to her soon after. The German climber held the virtual maglia rosa until Vollering attacked on the Colletta di Brondello, leaving Van der Breggen behind and reaching the front group 28km from the finish.
Van der Breggen was over a minute behind at that point, now putting Vollering into the virtual GC lead, and the FDJ United-SUEZ rider did most of the work on the run-in to the finish in Saluzzo to confirm her GC victory.
“It feels so surreal. We made a plan yesterday evening, and the girls were on fire from the start. They tried to be in the breakaway, that didn’t happen, but then they put a pace on the long first climb. Lauren [Dickson] was amazing today, she kept going. We made it over the top with a small group,” Vollering said after the stage, describing how her team set up the winning attack.
“Today was all about daring to lose. I let Antonia go away, and I told Anna, ‘I’m fine, second or third doesn’t matter to me, it’s up to you now’. And then I had to try to drop her somewhere, and I really went all-in on that last climb. It was still so long to the finish, but I did it, and I still can’t believe it."
She quickly gained the necessary 50 seconds on Van der Breggen to move into the virtual lead, but Vollering was on her last legs across the ninth day of racing.
“I only dared to dream of [the maglia rosa] when I had two minutes. I also had cramps everywhere in my legs, so with 20km to go, I was like ‘I hope I make it to the finish line’. The group I was in was working really well together, and it was quite a fast terrain, and then I was flying. As soon as I had the gap on Anna, I was like, ‘now I really need to give it everything I have’,” said Vollering.
With her GC win, Vollering becomes only the second women after Annemiek van Vleuten to win all three Grand Tours - the Tour de France Femmes, Vuelta Femenina, and Giro d’Italia Women.
Vollering did not contest the sprint where Fisher-Black went long but was passed by Longo Borghini who took the stage victory in the Italian champion's jersey.
"I’ve been very sick the past three months and I worked very hard to come back, I’m not still 100% but I didn’t want to leave this Giro without leaving a mark, and today in the bus I felt this anger coming inside me, and I was like, ‘I have nothing to lose’," Longo Borghini said at the finish.
"I don’t care about the GC, I just want to go and want to do it for my team mates that are simply amazing and I just wanted to win."
How it unfolded
Starting and finishing in Saluzzo, the 145km stage included the first-category climb to Montoso (8.9km at an average 9.4%), cresting 54.2km into the stage. It was followed by the third-category Colletta di Paesana and the second-category Colletta di Brondello, with 38.4km from the top of the last climb to the finish.
Despite several attempts, there was no early breakaway. FDJ United-Suez pushed hard from the bottom of the Montoso climb, and only seven riders remained at the front as Vollering led Niedermaier, Van der Breggen, Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike), Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek), Fisher-Black, and Longo Borghini over the top of the climb.
Niedermaier attacked from this group 80km from the finish and was let go, with Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black jumping across to her soon after. De Vries also went on the chase but never made it to the front.
Niedermaier’s group was more than two minutes ahead over the third-category Colletta di Paesana, putting the German climber in the virtual lead. Dickson came back to Van der Breggen and Vollering after the climb and immediately went to work, picking up De Vries reducing the gap to 1:35 minutes at the foot of the Colletta di Brondello.
Soon after Dickson was dropped, Vollering launched her attack and left Van der Breggen behind. At the top of the climb, the group with Niedermaier, Longo Borghini, and Fisher-Black was 53 seconds ahead of Vollering, with Van der Breggen at 1:21 minutes.
Vollering quickly made up time on the following descent and reached the front group 28km from the finish, just as the gradual climb to the day’s intermediate sprint started, and immediately went to the front of the group to increase the advantage.
At the intermediate sprint, Vollering picked up six bonus seconds, but more importantly, Van der Breggen was now 1:24 minutes behind, putting Vollering in the virtual lead. In the last 20km, Van der Breggen kept losing ground, eventually finishing 2:23 minutes down and dropping to third place overall.
In the streets of Saluzzo, Vollering led the group through the penultimate corner, then Fisher-Black launched a long sprint from the 300m mark and got a gap. With Vollering backing off, Longo Borghini went after the New Zealander and passed her in the last 50 metres to win the stage.
In addition to the overall victory, Vollering also won the blue mountain jersey. With four sprint victories, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) secured the red points jersey while her teammate Holmgren took the white U23 jersey, and Lidl-Trek also won the team classification.
Results
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