Demi Vollering sees off Van der Breggen and two strong youngsters in Giro d’Italia Women mountain stage

Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) won Wednesday’s turbulent fifth stage of the women’s Giro d’Italia. After a 146-kilometre stage over four mountains, she crossed the line first in Sante Stefano di Cadore. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) finished second and kept the pink jersey.

On Tuesday we already saw a somewhat unexpected landslide in the general classification of the women’s Giro d’Italia. Where a duel had been expected before the mountain time trial between Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) finished more than a minute ahead of both women.

That only raised the stakes for the following stages, knowing Van der Breggen had to defend that lead with only four team-mates. Lorena Wiebes had already been removed from the race after day one, and the New Zealander Mikayla Harvey crashed so heavily on Monday that she too had to leave the women’s Giro d’Italia.

So there was plenty of anticipation for the fifth stage, which featured four mountains. Quite rightly, as it turned out. From the moment the flag dropped, the race was on. After a little over 20 kilometres, the peloton split for the first time, with Van der Breggen not in the first group. That situation was corrected, but in the meantime a large group of 22 riders had gone clear.

Among them were several dangerous names. Lauren Dickson was there — FDJ-Suez’s second card and sixth in the general classification — but also Viktoria Chladonova, Marion Bunel (Visma | Lease a Bike), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon//SRAM), Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly) and the woman who had to support Van der Breggen in the mountains for as long as possible: Austrian climber Valentina Cavallar.

They were still given a four-minute gap, which meant Dickson virtually took over the pink jersey. SD Worx-Protime and Movistar did plenty to keep that advantage under control, but on the climbs the wheat was separated from the chaff again and an even more explosive race unfolded in the Italian mountains.

Van der Breggen was left on her own on the second climb of the day, the 7.5-kilometre Passo di Sant’Antonio at an average of 8.5%. The same happened to Reusser, who then decided to attack herself 58 kilometres from the finish, adding even more fire to the GC battle. The others followed, while Dickson, Bunel, Cavallar and Nadia Gontova remained up front.

The favourites were then joined by the riders who had dropped back from the breakaway, among whom there were also a few worker bees. In that way they drew back to within a minute of the front before having to tackle the Costa twice, a 4.3-kilometre climb at 8.6%.

On the first ascent, Vollering launched a serious attack, putting Reusser — who was dropped — and Van der Breggen under pressure. Dickson then dropped back to her leader and did excellent work, with Reusser in particular suffering. She was quickly distanced by a minute, but later returned before the day’s final climb.

Monica Trinca Colonel (Jayco AlUla) started the final obstacle with a 40-second advantage, but lost those seconds just as quickly when Vollering attacked. Antonia Niedermaier (23, Canyon//SRAM), Isabella Holmgren (21, Lidl-Trek) and Van der Breggen (36) followed, while the rest could not respond.

Those four were clearly the strongest and they could not shake each other on the climb, so it all came down to the descent and the final flat stretch to the finish. Van der Breggen tried once to use her strong descending skills, but could not get the others off her wheel. So the quartet went into the final kilometre together. Holmgren launched first, but Vollering was clearly the fastest.