Vollering blows race apart, but Giro d'Italia Women stage 3 comes down another sprint fight

The third stage of the Giro d’Italia Women was won by Elisa Balsamo. Race favourite Demi Vollering lit up the race and split the peloton, but everything came back together in the finale. In a reduced bunch sprint, the Italian pink jersey wearer from Lidl-Trek was convincingly the strongest: she took her third win in three days.

After two stages, the dust from Lorena Wiebes’ disqualification had started to settle. The Dutch super sprinter had won the opening stage, but was disqualified because her bike was too light. Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek then took the pink jersey in unusual fashion, but in stage two there was no doubt: she won and could celebrate properly.

The third stage looked like another one for the sprinters. But the route was a bit tougher than on the previous days. There were climbs here and there, and the finish in Buja was not easy either, with plenty of corners and an uphill drag to the line. That promised something. Could Balsamo take a third win?

From the start in Bibione, the hometown of two-time Giro stage winner Franco Pellizotti, the attacks came immediately. Six riders timed it best and built a gap. Nienke Veenhoven of Visma | Lease a Bike was the Dutch representative, and she was joined by Barbara Guarischi of SD Worx-Protime, Marta Pavesi of Top Girls Fassa Bortolo, Alison Jackson of St Michel - Preference Home - Auber 93, Christina Tonetti of Laboral Kutxa - Fundacion Euskadi and Eleonora Deotto of Mendelspeck E-Work.

On the climb of Moruzzo, the break split apart, leaving only Jackson, Tonetti and Pavesi at the front. That trio first passed the finish line with 44 kilometres to go in Buja. And who was watching there? Jonathan Milan, winner of the final men’s Giro stage and a resident of Buja.

With 24 kilometres to go, the decisive climb of Montenars awaited. It was short, at 1.5 kilometres, but brutally steep at 10.8 per cent. Before the riders could get to it, there was a crash in the peloton. Thalita de Jong of Human Powered Health was in a bad way, but it also left Antonina Niedermaier, Canyon//SRAM’s leader, out of position.

The team had to work hard to bring her back, but they could not do it before the foot of the climb. There, Célia Gery went to the front for Demi Vollering, and before you could say Giro d’Italia the peloton was in a hundred pieces. Pink jersey Balsamo was dropped, and in no time only a group of twelve riders remained!

Vollering was there, as were Anna van der Breggen of SD Worx-Protime, Marlen Reusser of Movistar, Niamh Fisher-Black of Lidl-Trek, Elisa Longo Borghini of UAE Team ADQ, and the Visma | Lease a Bike duo of Femke de Vries and Marion Bunel. Not for long, though, because Vollering accelerated just before the summit. Longo Borghini, Van der Breggen and Reusser could follow, but the others were struggling.

Van der Breggen also did her share of the work and crested first, which meant she would take over the mountains jersey. The quartet was joined on the descent by Fisher-Black, De Vries and Isabella Holmgren of Lidl-Trek. Once they were out of the descent, it became clear that nobody wanted to work together. Attacks came from De Vries and Vollering, but of course they were neutralised.

In the gaps between those attacks, Monica Trinca Colonel of Liv AlUla Jayco and Lore De Schepper of AG Insurance - Soudal were able to come back too. The question was: where was the peloton, and could they close the gap? The answer was yes, because there was zero cooperation. With 15 kilometres to go, the favourites were caught by a reduced bunch.

It was unclear which sprinters were still there. What was certain was that Balsamo was back in the mix. She looked the top favourite in any sprint, which most teams were trying to avoid. It was Sigrid Haugset of Uno-X Mobility who timed it well and attacked hard from the bunch. She held on for a very long time, but was caught in the final metres. The sprint was then comfortably won by Balsamo: win number three.