Giro d’Italia Women Stage 9: Vollering Overhauls Van der Breggen in Dramatic Concluder

Demi Vollering pulled off a stunning move on the final stage of the Giro d’Italia Women on Sunday, dropping race leader Anna van der Breggen on the final climb of the race, bridging across to a dangerous breakaway move and then driving the pace to the end.

The stage to Saluzzo was won by Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), who was one of three strong riders who went clear of the GC group with 82km remaining and who were later joined by Vollering.

Niamh Fisher-Black sat on the group as her Lidl-Trek teammate Isabella Holmgren had been distanced behind and then blasted forward inside the final 500 meters, but Longo Borghini was able to close down on her and then sweep past before the line.

Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) trailed in 2:22 back and, having started the day 49 seconds ahead of Vollering, saw her pink jersey slip away.

It’s a big blow to the four-time Giro champion, who also lost the race lead in the Vuelta España Femenina on the final day. She had taken the pink jersey last Tuesday when she dominated the stage 4 time trial, but looked on Sunday to be feeling the effects of fatigue as well as Friday’s crash.

Vollering’s ambush saw her end the race 30 seconds ahead of Antonio Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), who was part of the break and who was race leader on the road for a long time.

Van der Breggen slipped to third, 1:37 back.

“Today was all about daring to lose,” Vollering said. “I had to dare to lose it all. I let Antonio go away and I was like to Anna, ‘I am fine also with third because second or third doesn’t matter to me. It is now up to you to work.’ Then I had to try to drop her somewhere.

“I really went all in on the last climb. I knew I had to do the time trial of my life there. It was still so long to the finish but I did it we did it. I still cannot believe it.”

‘This means much more’

Vollering had started the day frustrated after the decision to shorten the stage on Saturday due to the risk of an avalanche. That saw the climb of Sestrieres removed from the course and while Vollering did win that stage, she only gained 11 seconds on Van der Breggen, including the time bonus.

She went all in on Sunday, attacking on the cat. 1 climb of Montoso and dropping many riders. While she was unable to gap Van der Breggen and other GC contenders, she did get rid of the race leader’s teammates. This became very important when Longo Borghini went clear on the descent and was joined by Niedermaier and Fisher-Black.

They gained a lead of over two minutes but with Van der Breggen doing most of the work behind, the gap was cut to 1:30 with 40km to go. Vollering then managed to distance Van der Breggen on the category 2 Colletta di Brondello, going over the summit 57 seconds behind the leaders and 22 seconds ahead of the pink jersey.

She was on a stomping day and caught the leading trip with 28km to go, doing a large amount of the work from there. Van der Breggen was herself caught by Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) but despite that reinforcement they were 2:13 back with 10km to go.

Longo Borghini had a frustrating spring due to illness and was determined to turn things around.

“This means much more than a win, this is a comeback,” she said. “I have been vulnerable these months, both in my body and also in my mind. There were days where I thought that everything would probably never come back and I was maybe done.

“I have been very sick the past three months and I worked very hard to come back. I am still not 100 percent, but I didn’t want to leave this Giro without leaving a mark.

“Today in this bus I felt this anger coming inside me. I was like, ‘I have nothing to lose, I don’t care about the GC. I just want to go and do it for my teammates that are simply amazing.’ I just wanted to win.”

She did exactly that, and so too did Vollering.