Watch the Giro d'Italia Donne 2022 Here (No Spoilers)

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The 2022 Giro d’Italia Donne has started! Many of the top women who’ll you see next month in the Tour de France Femme avec Zwift are racing in Italy for the next 10 days.

The winner of the Stage 1 4.8 km prologue time trial? Click on the blur to reveal the spoiler:

American Kristen Faulkner racing for the Austrailan-registered Team BikeExchange-Jayco beat teammate Georgia Baker by 4 seconds to win the first maglia rosa of this year’s Giro Donne. The fastest time fell throughout the day, with Baker sitting in the hot seat with a time of 5:49 on a very windy course. Baker is a former world champion in the 4 km team pursuit on the track, and is one of the fastest humans on the planet over that distance. Congratulations Team BikeExchange-Jayco!

For a more detailed race recap, check out Katy Madgwick’s Stage 1 coverage on VeloNews or Amy Jones’s story on CyclingNews.

If you aren’t a subscriber of GCN+, Eurosport, RAI, or Discovery+ (only in regions where Discovery+ rebroadcasts Eurosport - sorry US based fans!) you can watch the Stage 1 action free (in Italian) on Youtube from PMG Sport, the organizer of the Giro d’Italia Donne:

Giro Donne 2022 - LIVE - Tappa 01

Stage 1 official results are on the giroitaliadonne.it website. Click the blur to see the top 20:

On today’s short time trial, 30 seconds separate the top 50 finishers. Most contenders for the overall victory sit closer than that, but with just 10 stages in the Giro, teams can’t afford to have their designated leaders in too far of a time deficit behind their rivals even before they get to the hillier days when those deficits can be erased.

These are the leaders of the special jersey competitions who’ll wear these prizes tomorrow:

The colors of the leaders jerseys in the Giro d’Italia are different from the ones in the Tour de France.

Pink (maglia rosa): the general classification leader with the lowest cumulative time across stages completed thus far.

“Purple” (maglia ciclamino): the sprinting competition leader with the most points accumulated at designated sprint lines.

Green (maglia verde): the Queen of the Mountains leader with the most points earned on designated mountaintops in hilly stages.

White (maglia bianca): the highest-placed rider on general classification under 25 years of age.

Blue (maglia azzurra): the highest-placed Italian rider on general classification.

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Stage 2 live stream begins July 1 @ 13:45 CEST
Use this website to convert to your local time zone.

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A lumpy stage 2 stayed on the island of Sardinia and coursed along the rolling hills of its eastern coast. Six riders mostly from smaller Continental Pro teams broke away early and stayed away until 10 km until the finish line as the bigger teams worked well together to reel in the escapees. Despite the breakaway’s best efforts, this was a day destined for a bunch sprint finish.

The teams in contention for the overall win had their leaders near the front of the peloton except for BikeExchange-Jayco’s Kristen Faulkner. The maglia rosa on the day chose to stay tucked toward the back half of the pack, away from the risky positioning battles at the head of the race.

Most of the GC contenders backed off the front at the 3 km to go line to let the sprinters get in position. If a crash happens before the final 3 km, riders who go down lose significant time to those who didn’t crash. Under UCI rules, after 3 km, there is no time penalty for crash survivors, so those not contesting the sprint back off and ride in at the less contentious back of the group.

Who won? Click on the blur to reveal spoilers

Trek-Segafredo’s Elisa Longo-Borghini perfectly led out her teammate and compatriot Elisa Balsamo, who beat Jumbo-Visma’s Marianne Vos in a photo finish. This bunch sprint finish was a replay of the finale at the 2021 World Championship race where Balsamo earned her rainbow stripes.

Among the top 10 were sprint specialists like SDWorx’s Lotte Kopecky, and Team Valcar’s Chiara Consonni. Kopecky is the Belgian who won the 2022 Tour of Flanders in front of a home crowd, and Consonni won this year’s Dwars door Vlaanderen in a massive field sprint with convincing swagger.

Mixing it up in today’s mass sprint was yesterday’s second place finisher, Team BikeExchange-Jayco’s Georgia Baker, who started the day 4 seconds behind teammate Faulkner on general classification. Had Baker won the stage, she would have claimed the time bonus to take over the race lead instead of Balsamo. Even if Faulkner’s sprinting prowess were on par with the sprint specialists, she would have lost the race lead to Balsamo with time bonuses. In hindsight - Faulkner’s choice to stay out of harm’s way and risk a crash seems like a wise move for her overall GC aspirations. Don’t fight the small battles if you’re in it to win the big ones.

In stage races, bonuses for sprints and Queen of the Mountain (QOM) competitions determine not only the leaders in the magila ciclamina (Sprinters) and maglia verde (Climbers) competitions, but also the the pink jersey for the overall GC lead. For Stage 3, Balsamo will put aside her World Champion jersey to put on the maglia rosa. Though she also leads the Sprint and Best Italian Rider competitions, the riders in second place will wear the maglia ciclamina and maglia azzura respectively.

For detailed coverage of Stage 2, check out Owen Rogers on Cycling Weekly.

Stage 2 official results on giroitaliadonne.it have not been published at this time.

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Stage 3 live stream begins July 2 @ 12:45 CEST.
Use this website to convert to your local time zone.

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Stage 3 played out as another day for the sprint specialists, and the final day on the island of Sardinia.

The day’s long-haul breakaway contained Markéta Hájková riding for Team Bepink. The Czech rider redeemed herself from an unfortunate mishap when she lost her balance and tipped over on the start ramp of the prologue time trial.

Photo: Arne Mill/Markéta Hájková Instagram

At 7km, the break was reeled in by the peloton, and rode gruppo compatto toward another fierce bunch sprint. Movistar massed at the front for Dane Emma Norsgaard Bjerg, Trek-Segafredo led out for World Champion and race leader Elisa Balsamo, Team DSM rode for Charlotte Kool, Team Valcar Travel & Service put their faith in Chiara Consonni, UAE Team ADQ was all in for Sofia Bertizzolo. Who won? Click the blur!

La Legenda Marianne Vos, the G.O.A.T., took her 31st Giro stage win. Her Jumbo-Visma teammates placed Vos in good position with 4km to go, but Vos was on her own in the final 2km. She freelanced in the draft of other teams’ leadouts and came around for victory by a convincing margin. Of the GC riders vying for the overall win - Vos has the most dominant finishing kick, and can win ahead of the pure sprint specialists. This ability may make the difference in the days ahead where her sprint may earn her time bonuses on days when the GC standings might be decided from among a reduced group of GC riders like Vos, Annemiek van Vleuten, or Elisa Longo Borghini.

See Abby Mickey’s Stage 3 report on Cycling Tips.

The Giro has a rest day on Sunday as they transfer from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia to Cesena on the Adriatic coast. Racing resumes on Monday July 4.

Stage 3 official results on giroditaliadonne.it have not been published yet, but here are top 10 GC results:

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Watch Stage 4 on July 4 @ 14:00 CEST
Use this website to convert to your local time zone.

Giro Donne 2022 - LIVE - Tappa 04

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The way that Stage 4 played out, you’d think the Giro d’Italia celebrates July 4 with fireworks. Looking at the course profile map, the unrelenting hills in the final two-thirds foretold a day that a breakaway would go off the front, but not one where several GC contenders would be in that break.

Breakaways are a game of chicken, with the larger mass of riders betting they can collectively overtake the smaller group before the finish provided that the time gap isn’t too big.

Some breaks are allowed to go off the front by the peloton if the mix of riders and teams represented don’t pose a threat to the overall placing of the general classification riders. But what happens when a breakaway goes off the front that the peloton can’t reel in?

Today’s “live” feed started after the fireworks erupted on the second of three categorized climbs. Movistar’s Annemiek van Vleuten, FDJ-Nouvelle Acquaitaine Futuroscope’s Marta Cavalli, and UAE-Team ADQ’s Mavi Garcia attacked and quickly opened a gap on a chase group of 10 riders. FDJ-Nouvelle Acquitaine Futuroscope’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Evita Muzic, Bike Exchange-Jayco’s two GC riders Kristen Faulkner and Amanda Spratt, as well as Trek-Segafredo’s GC rider Elisa Longo Borghini were in the chase to close the gap. We didn’t get to see how the peloton “allowed” van Vleuten, Garcia, and Cavalli go up the road, but if I had to guess, they attacked with such ferocity on the steep pitch of the Colle del Barbotto that the three snapped the elastic and forced open a gap.

Demonstrating world-beating bike handling skills down narrow twisting roads, the trio’s gap kept growing over two chase groups that would have had an advantage on less technical descents.

van Vleuten’s renowned for her ability to ratchet up the pace on a long climb and sustain a leg-searing effort that leaves everyone behind. On the day’s last climb, Garcia attacked first, followed by Annemiek doing what Annemiek does best to drop Cavalli.

In the sprint finish, van Vleuten took a convincing win over Garcia, but more important than the stage win - she took over the pink leader’s jersey with a 25 second lead over Mavi Garcia, 57 seconds over Marta Cavalli, and 5 minutes or more over the GC contenders in the chase group.

Check out Lukas Knöfler’s coverage of Stage 4 on Cyclingnews

Stage 4 official results on giroitaliadonne.it are also not posted.

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Stage 5 is the flattest stage of the 2022 Giro d’Italia Donne.
Watch on July 5 @ 12:45 CEST
Use this website to convert to your local time zone.

Giro Donne 2022 - LIVE - Tappa 05

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As expected, the sprinters’ teams made sure the flat Stage 5 ended in a mass sprint. An early breakaway of five riders contained two from Top Girls - Fassa Bortolo, one from Valcar Travel & Service, one from Team BePink Elite. These Italian pro development team have animated the race and put riders in the break every day. Despite their concerted efforts that had in excess of a 5 minute gap, the peloton reeled in everyone with 4.3 km to go.

Liv Racing-Xstra, DSM, Jumbo-Visma, Ceratizit-WNT, SD Worx, FDJ-Nouvelle Acquitaine Futuroscope, Trek-Segafaredo, Valcar Travel & Service, Uno-X, and BikeExchange - Jayco all placed leadout riders at the front to put their sprinters in the best possible position.

DSM’s Charlotte Kool and the World Champion Elisa Balsamo entered a left turn shoulder to shoulder with 150 m to go. Balsamo had the inside line and came out slightly ahead of Kool, and accelerated to the line for her third stage win in the 33rd Giro d’Italia Donne.

In unfortunate news, a crash claimed a dozen or so riders including SD Worx’s https://www.instagram.com/blanka_vas/ and Movistar’s Danish sprinter Emma Norsgaard, who came to the line nursing her right arm. We’ll see tomorrow if Norsgaard’s injury keeps her racing the Giro Donne.

See Lukas Knöfler’s Stage 5 report on CyclingNews.

Click through to see the overall standings after Stage 5 courtesy of FirstCycling.com

Magila Rosa (GC Leader): Annamiek van Vleuten
Maglia Ciclamina (Sprint Leader): Elisa Balsamo
Maglia Verde (Mountains Leader): Mavi Garcia
Maglia Biana (Best Young Rider): Niamh Fisher-Black
Maglia Azzurra (Best Italian Rider): Marta Cavalli

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Stage 6 starts July 6 @ 12:45 CEST.
Use this website to convert to your local time zone.

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The two riders we called out who crashed yesterday SD Worx’s Blanka Vas and Movistar’s Danish sprinter Emma Norsgaard bounced back and started the Stage 6 circuit race from Sarnico to Bergamo, Bike racers are the toughest athletes bar none, and the women aer every bit as determined to race as the men.

The racers climbed the San Pantaleone hill (1.7 km @ 5.5 % average gradient) five times before climbing the cobbled roads of the historic walled city of Bergamo. The Giro Donne organizers have showcased gorgeous places on every stage, and they didn’t fall short today either.

The last 40 km was full tilt with multiple long-range breakaway attempts. Several GC teams looking to claw back some of the 5+ minute lead of race leader Annemiek van Vleuten attacked on the cobbled Bergamo Alta climb. A crash near the gate to the walled city at 4 km to delayed van Vleuten.

Trek Segafredo’s Elisa Longo-Borghini, UAE-ADQ’s Mavi Garcia, and Jumbo Visma’s Marianne Vos had a gap on everyone else in the following 800 meters, but were chased down on the following downhill by a select group of 8 riders including fast finishers van Vleuten and SD Worx’ sprinter Lotte Kopecky. At the red kit banner with 1 km lo go, this select group started to jockey for the final gallop to the line.

In the end, La Legenda Marianne Vos uncorked another rocket finish to take her 32nd career Giro win.

General Classification shuffled a few riders in placed 7 - 10. Valcar Service & Silvia Persico jumped from 10th on GC to 7th, overtaking CANYON//SRAM’s Elise Chabbey, SD Worx’s Niamh Fisher-Black and FDJ’s Evita Muzic.

The leaders of the special jerseys after Stage 6 are:
Maglia Rosa: Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Ciclamina; Marianne Vos, Jumbo-Visma
Maglia Verde: Elise Chabbey, CANYON//SRAM
Maglia Bianca: Niamh Fisher-Black, SD Worx
Maglia Azzurra: Marta Cavalli, FDJ Nouvelle Acquaitaine-Futuroscope

I haven’t mentioned yet the race for Best Team (aka Team GC) currently held by FDJ-Nouvelle Acquitaine-Futuroscope. A team’s ranking is calculated by adding the times of its three highest-placed riders. Among other incentives like a money prize at the finale, team GC placing determines the order of the team cars in the follow caravan.

Strategically, the car’s position is crucial when riders need to drop back to the team car for water, food, or mechanical service. It’s even more important when road conditions prevent cars from moving freely up to the head of the caravan, such as on narrow roads when passing two abreast is difficult, or on long ascents and descents when dropped riders are scattered among the cars and it’s unsafe to pass them.

Lukas Knöfler has the race report on CyclingNews

See complete race results on FirstCycling.com

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Stage 7 starts with a mildly rolling 3 laps around Prevalle with a Sprint bonus each circuit. Riders then pass a fourth Sprint bonus before the road tilts up toward a mountaintop finish on the Category 1 Passo Maniva.

This should be a strategically interesting day as the Best Sprinter’s contest is still very much in contention among the five leading that competition: Vos, Balsamo, Kool, Kopecky, and van Vleuten. Of those, Balsamo, Kool and Kopecky are sprint specialists less interested in their overall placing.

The question for the day becomes how Trek-Segafredo balances priorities for their two stars. Will Trek-Segafredo go all out for Balsamo to reclaim the ciclamina jersey from Vos, or save themselves toward the end when they hope to claw back Longo Borghini’s 05:00 minute deficit on a course profile that looks tailor-made for van Vleuten’s superpower?

Vos is 10:51 minutes behind van Vleuten in 18th place, and it’ll be tough sledding to make that much time before the end of the Giro Donne. Maybe Vos has shifted focus from a Giro podium to winning stages and the valuable UCI points that come with that? Perhaps she’s playing the long game and tuning up for a shot at winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift?

On a day when the sprinters won’t let breakaways get up the road unless they’re in it, Vos might have to bide her time until the climbing starts and rally the other GC teams to combine forces against a powerful van Vleuten.

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Racing starts July 7 @ 12:45 CEST.
Use this website to convert to your local time zone.

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Stage 7 turned out to be a battle fought among climbers on the mountaintop finish, rather than the sprinters battle on the opening three circuits. Sprint leader Marianne Vos did not start the day, leaving Trek-Segafredo’s Elisa Balsamo once again in the maglia ciclamina.

In the final 20 km, two breakaway groups with 13 riders including DSM’s Juliette Labous hovered 5 minutes ahead of the main peloton where the GC leaders were biding their time until the attacks against (and by) overall leader Annemiek van Vleuten would happen.

While the break withered one by one on the switchback climbs, only DSM’s French climber Juliette Labous remained ahead of the pink jersey group.

Annemiek van Vleuten started the day with a 25 second lead on Mavi Garcia, and a 57 second gap on Marta Cavalli. van Vleuten had enough time in hand to play a defensive game and wait for the others to attack first.

The trio of Cavalli, Garcia, and van Vleuten, end Longo Borghini each attacked the others, surging the pace up up and down watching for the others to crack completely.

Meanwhile, Labous rode within herself, maintaining her own pace and unconcerned with the slugfest behind.

On the steep pitches of the Passo Maniva, the main group waited until the final kilometer to attack van Vleuten and make up precious seconds. When Annemiiek’s on form, nobody can sustain a long attack on a steep climb better. In the end, Labous took the stage with van Vleuten at -1:37 and Garcia at -1:41 behind on the day.

The leaders of the special jerseys after Stage 6 are:
Maglia Rosa: Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Ciclamina; Elisa Balsamo, Trek-Segafredo
Maglia Verde: Elise Chabbey, CANYON//SRAM
Maglia Bianca: Niamh Fisher-Black, SD Worx
Maglia Azzurra: Marta Cavalli, FDJ Nouvelle Acquaitaine-Futuroscope

Overall GC standings:

Results on FirstCycling.com

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Stage 8 stars July 8 @ 12:45 CEST
Use this webpage to convert to your local time zone.

Giro Donne 2022 - LIVE - Tappa 08

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Bike racers need superhero theme music. The second of three consecutive mountain stages, saw savage battles among the top climbers. If you want to see a nail-biting spectacle, watch the embedded video in the post above this one starting with the final climb at 20 km to go.

While all the women rode heroically to keep Annemiek van Vleuten in check, when Annemiek crushes a climb out of the saddle, I could hear the Jaws theme music for the vicious shark attack happening on the base of the Lago di Cei climb. Look at this photo - can you hear it too?

Descending toward the finish at 85 km/h (52 mph), van Vleuten overcooked a downhill right turn and collided with a plastic road marker in a scary flashback to the crash that cost her a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics road race. This time, AVV remounted quickly, fixed a dropped chain, and kept going. Do I need to blur out what happened next?

Annemiek resumed attacking, and made back the time she lost in the crash in the remaining ~4 km.

Leading the special jersey competition after Stage 7 are:
Maglia Rosa (Overall Leader): Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Ciclamina (Best Sprinter); Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Verde (Best Climber): Elise Chabbey, CANYON//SRAM
Maglia Bianca: (Best Young Rider) Niamh Fisher-Black, SD Worx
Maglia Azzurra (Best placed Italian): Marta Cavalli, FDJ Nouvelle Acquaitaine-Futuroscope

Chabbey leads van Vleuten by a slim 4 points in the Best Climber competition. It’s a good thing van Vleuten is Dutch and over 25 years of age so someone else can win those last two jerseys.

Top 10 on general classification looks like this:

See complete results on FirstCycling.com.

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Stage 9 is the Queen Stage with another epic climb to the Passo Daone. At 1291 meters elevation, 10.9 average gradient and 18.1 max gradient, it’s the highest peak (“cima coppi” in Italian) in this year’s Giro d’Italia Donne.

Stage 9 starts July 9 @ 12:45 CEST.
Convert to your local time zone here.

Giro Donne 2022 - LIVE - Tappa 09

Anything can happen in a stage race, and it’s possible van Vleuten will have a bad day… For the others in the top 10, this will be their last chance to make up time on the maglia rosa before Sunday’s mostly flat, 90.5 km final stage to Padova.

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If there’s something you can predict with women’s racing - it’s that you can’t, and that makes it wonderful to #watchthefemmes

On the one hand, you can bet on everyone in GC contention doing their level best to make time on the race leader Annemiek van Vleuten. On the other, you could count on strong riders too far down on GC hoping to slip off the front and go for the stage win. Both these stories played out as expected. But how the attacks on AvV happened made the stage interesting.

After yesterday’s crash on a technical descent, van Vleuten revealed a weakness that others could exploit. On today’s final descent of the day, FDJ’s Marta Cavalli sped away from the maglia rosa on the switchbacks, gaining a 20 second gap that van Vleuten had to close up by herself once the roads leveled out. By that time, Trek-Segrafedo’s Elisa Longo Borghini caught up to the duo, and all of them chased BikeEffect-Jayco’s Kristen Faulkner, who’d been leading the stage all day.

Faulkner won the prologue time trial last week and wore the maglia rosa for a day, but her GC standings plummeted on Stage 4 when she bonked hard for not taking on enough water and food during the blistering heat. She started Stage 9 nearly 20 minutes behind AvV in 13th place, and was on a mission to regain glory for herself and her team, which pulled Amanda Spratt and Georgia Baker before yesterday’s start for COVID positives.

In the end - Kristen Faulkner time trialed her way to a well-deserved solo victory on the queen stage. Behind her - FDJ’s Marta Cavalli attacked a weakened van Vleuten and Longo Borghini to finish second. Knowing the stage win was already gone, and with a 2 minute lead on Cavalli, van Vleuten cruised in just behind Longo Borghini knowing that the pink jersey was safely hers.

Here’s the stage results

See Lukas Knöfler’s Stage 9 report on CyclingNews
The general classification looks like this:

The special jersey competitions after Stage 9 are:
Maglia Rosa (Overall Leader): Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Ciclamina (Best Sprinter); Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Verde (Best Climber): Kristen Faulkner, BikeExchange-Jayco
Maglia Bianca: (Best Young Rider) Niamh Fisher-Black, SD Worx
Maglia Azzurra (Best placed Italian): Marta Cavalli, FDJ Nouvelle Acquaitaine-Futuroscope

See complete results on FirstCycling.com

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Stage 10 is flat except for one category 3 climb 71 km from the finish. While the “obvious” prediction calls for a breakaway reeled in by the pack for a bunch sprint, the particulars of this Giro Donne have been thrillingly unpredictable.

Tune in Sunday July 10 @ 12:45 CEST to see how the finale plays out.
Use this site to convert to your local time zone

Giro Donne 2022 - LIVE - Tappa 10

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Sorry for the late followup to the final stage - no surprise that the race ended in a mass sprint. When you saw most of the Trek-Segafredo riders at the front with 4 km to go, the obvious choice was World Champion Elisa Balsamo for the win.

In the final kilometers, all the teams with sprint ambitions also came to the front. With three 90 degree turns in the last 2.5 km involving traffic furniture, those sprint trains got jumbled.

Jumbo-Visma came out of those turns first, pulling for Karlijn Swinkels as CANYON//SRAM swarmed the front. Two Trek-Segafredo riders also came to the front, pulling Balsamo in their wake at 1.8 km. 1800 meters is a long way to maintain top speed for only two leadout riders, even if one of them is cyclocross World Champion Lucinda Brand.

With a right hand sweeper around a traffic circle at 800m to go, another right hand sweeper at 400m, then a left and right combination in the last 200, this came down to a tactical battle to get the best position while boxing in others so they couldn’t accelerate. Whoever could hit the front in the final 200 m and take the shortest line through those bends would win.

Staying out of the wind until then, Liv Racing Xstra’s Rachele Barbieri and Chiara Consonni riding for Valcar Travel & Service spooled up their turbos at 200 meters. As the other riders shifted left to set up for the final right sweeper, the two Italians sprinted past on their right, and hit the final corner first. Carrying more speed than the rest with their choice of line, Consonni pipped a tiring Barbieri for the win.

Consonni and Barbieri race for the Italian national track squad and both hold multiple national and world titles in the track endurance events like the Omnium, Madison, and Scratch Race . The speed and skills honed on the velodrome served both of them well in this chaotic finale where they profited off of other teams’ leadout efforts. This was Consonni’s first stage win at the Giro Donne, and likely not the last for the 23 year old.

The final jersey winners for the 2022 Giro d’Italia Donne are:

Maglia Rosa (Overall Leader): Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Ciclamina (Best Sprinter); Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar
Maglia Verde (Best Climber): Kristen Faulkner, BikeExchange-Jayco
Maglia Bianca: (Best Young Rider) Niamh Fisher-Black, SD Worx
Maglia Azzurra (Best placed Italian): Marta Cavalli, FDJ Nouvelle Acquaitaine-Futuroscope

See FirstCycling.com for the official standings.

Thanks everyone for your patience with this daily update thread!

[Dean]

Thanks for the updates @shooj … worked perfectly for my attention span