Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) won stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia Women, outsprinting Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) on a shortened stage that ended about a kilometre from the top of the Colle delle Finestre.
The stage had to be shortened by 28.5km due to an avalanche and the risk of more ice falling onto the road in the descent from the climb. Race leader Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) finished fourth, a few seconds behind Vollering to defend the maglia rosa.
“It was strange because [the Colle delle Finestre] was suddenly the final climb. It was the weirdest finish line of my life, but I’m very happy to take the win," said Vollering at the stage winner’s press conference.
"It’s a really beautiful climb, and I really enjoyed it. But I didn’t think last night that it would finish like this.
“We hoped that we could get closer to the maglia rosa today. Tomorrow’s stage is not as hard as today’s [planned] stage, but we will make a plan this evening and think about how to try to win the Giro."
How it unfolded
The stage was originally planned to cover 105km from Rivoli to Sestriere. The Colle delle Finestre featured 18.5km in total length at an average 9.2% and the last 7.8km on a gravel road, which then set up a descent and the finishing ascent to Sestriere. But due to an avalanche temporarily blocking the last bit of the climb and the threat of ice falling onto the descent, the stage was shortened by 28.5km, with final confirmation only coming as the race was already on the gravel portion of the climb.
It had taken over an hour for a breakaway of 16 riders to form. At the intermediate sprint in Meana di Susa, already 2.2km into the Colle delle Finestre climb, only Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), Célia Gery (FDJ United-SUEZ), Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Rosita Reijnhout (Visma-Lease a Bike), Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health), Caroline Andersson (Liv AlUla Jayco), Becky Storrie (Picnic PostNL), and Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) remained, 48 seconds ahead of the ‘peloton’.
This break was caught at a point when only 11.5km of racing remained, though nobody knew this yet. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) had already been dropped twice but kept going at her own pace, briefly returning before losing contact again.
Gery pulled at the front of the race for several kilometres. When the stage 7 winner swung off about a kilometre before the start of the gravel section of the climb, only her teammate Lauren Dickson and Vollering, Van der Breggen, Niedermaier, Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike), Holmgren, Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime), and Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) remained in the group.
Dickson continued to set the pace, reducing the group further. At the start of the gravel section, only Vollering, Niedermaier, Van der Breggen, De Vries, Fisher-Black, and Holmgren were still in the front group, and soon after, the decision to shorten the stage was communicated, leaving less than 7km to the new finish.
When Dickson had emptied herself, Niedermaier came to the front of the group with 6.3km to go, and then Vollering accelerated several times, eventually leaving only Niedermaier, Van der Breggen, and Holmgren on her wheel with about 5.5km to the finish.
Holmgren lost contact soon after, leaving three riders at the front, but the young Canadian returned with 4km to go. She immediately tried to attack but struggled to get extra speed on the steep climb.
She launched a second attack with 3.5km to go and briefly got a gap on the others, but Niedermaier jumped across, and Van der Breggen then closed the gap with Vollering on her wheel. From there on, Van der Breggen set the pace herself, only interrupted by an acceleration from Vollering 2.5km from the finish that did not split the group.
Van der Breggen pulled the group close to the finish where Vollering went through the inside of a hairpin turn to launch her final attack for the stage win, crossing the improvised finish line 1km from the top of the Colle delle Finestre a few metres ahead of Holmgren, Niedermaier, and Van der Breggen.
Results
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