• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Giro d'Italia 33rd Giro d'Italia Donne, June 30th-July 10th, 2022

Page 4 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Who will win the 2022 Giro Donne?

  • Annemiek van Vleuten

    Votes: 10 76.9%
  • Someone else (write your pick in a post)

    Votes: 3 23.1%

  • Total voters
    13
Clipboard.jpg
 
Splits in the bunch late on, Chabbey and Muzic the most prominent to lose time, but since Évita is only the third highest placed rider on FDJ it's probably not a major issue for them, she'll probably be set to work looking after Cille and Cavalli on Passo Maniva if it doesn't get blown up from the bottom anyway.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Ilmaestro99
You'd think Labous is the obvious biggest threat here, but even so she wouldn't get on the podium if she climbs Maniva at the same speed as van Vleuten unless the others collapsed. Rossato and Ducuara are also within 15 minutes, while Harvey and Patiño are more proven commodities at this race and strong climbers in their own right. Viably could be a great battle for the stage at least, no guarantee the heads of state take it.
 
BEX left the front when they had made sure Labous wasn't threatening Spratt's GC position. Amalie Lutro has attacked from the break to gain some screen time, but I doubt she'll make it far once they hit the actual climb (let's pray for TV pictures when they get there).

FdJ are working now.
 
It's quite pleasing actually when you look at things now that by and large these Unipuerto stages are no longer being as decisive, and the stages with the biggest time gaps tend to be those which are going up and down a lot more frequently. It augurs well for better mountain stages in future, as per that chart that Saul brought out a couple of years ago showing that multi-mountain stages were almost non-existent in women's cycling. Of course, it's possible that with the time gaps generated on stage 3, Annemiek didn't feel the need to completely blow it up from the bottom like she did on Laghi di Cancano a few years ago, since she only really needed to pay attention to García and Cavalli, but nevertheless, she did try attacking, as did Mavi, and the time gaps between the top 10-12 (excluding Juliette who was in the break) were not so big - around 90 seconds between van Vleuten and Magnaldi, as opposed to around 5 minutes on Monday.

Similarly, in the Ceratizit Challenge last year, a lot of riders were able to get to around 90" from Annemiek in the MTT, but in the ensuing stage with lots of up and down but not that much 'real' climbing, Annemiek won by three minutes and 10th place was over 7 minutes down, much more like the Cesena stage. Again at Norefjell in the Tour of Norway, 23 riders within 2 minutes, 10th place at +1'12, similar at Lagunas de Neila, (bigger gaps this year than in 2021, despite or perhaps because of the weaker field). The SD Worx annihilation at the Giro last year show that there are still cases where the single climb being attacked from the base can be absolutely destructive in women's cycling, but if we stand more chance of variety in the mountain stages and fewer hockeystick profiles in the near future, that's great news.
 
BEX has been unlucky in the Giro - Santesteban failed a COVID test three days before the race while Faulkner suffered from dehydration in stage 4 - This is another reason why you need seven riders in stage races of 6 or more days - So much more can be done to make the sport more professional.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samu Cuenca

TRENDING THREADS