Right, for those that want it:
Prologue - Caserta-Caserta (2,1km)
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 02'26
2 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +1"
3 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +5"
4 Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +7"
5 Melissa Hoskins (Orica-AIS) AUS +8"
6 Roxane Knetemann (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +8"
7 Jolien d'Hoore (Lotto-Belisol) BEL +9"
8 Shelley Olds (Ale-Cipollini) USA +10"
9 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +10"
10 Amy Pieters (Giant-Shimano) NED +10"
The pattern was set for Rabobank domination - their team is just scary strong at this point even if you take Marianne Vos out of it!
The second stage (first road stage) was a circuit race including some notable punchy hills, and the race duly broke up into pieces more than anticipated, with an extremely strong breakaway gaining big time and Vos taking the lead.
Stage 1: Santa Maria a Vico - Santa Maria a Vico (95km)
1 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 2'42'03
2 Elisa Longo Borghini (Team Hitec Products-UCK) ITA +4"
3 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +5"
4 Claudia Häusler (Giant-Shimano) GER +1'20"
5 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +1'20"
6 Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +1'20"
7 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +1'20"
8 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team Hitec Products-UCK) RSA +1'20"
9 Mara Abbott (United Healthcare) USA +1'24"
10 Audrey Cordon (Team Hitec Products-UCK) FRA +1'24"
The following stage was a sprint, but also saw the second straight day that climbing specialist Emma Pooley was plagued by nosebleeds and lost unnecessary time (4 minutes on stage 1, 3 more on stage 2, where you would expect a healthy Pooley to be in the mix on stage 1 and not lose anything on a flat stage).
Stage 2: Frattamaggiore - Frattamaggiore (120km)
1 Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) ITA 2'54'36"
2 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +st
3 Shelley Olds (Ale-Cipollini) USA +st
4 Carmen Small-McNellis (Specialized-Lululemon) USA +st
5 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +st
6 Barbara Guarischi (Ale-Cipollini) ITA +st
7 Melissa Hoskins (Orica-AIS) AUS +st
8 Giada Borgato (Estado de México-Faren) ITA +st
9 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +st
10 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +st
Stage 3 was a longer stage with some rolling terrain where Rabobank continued their winning ways (though van Vleuten was unable to take back the time on her teammate that she needed) after Annemiek van Vleuten soloed away from the remains of a small escape she'd been placed in to monitor it.
Stage 3: Caserta - San Donato val di Comino (125km)
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 3'20'50
2 Elena Berlato (Ale-Cipollini) ITA +10"
3 Mayuko Hagiwara (Wiggle-Honda) JPN +16"
4 Doris Schweizer (Astana-BePink) SUI +20"
5 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +21"
6 Claudia Häusler (Giant-Shimano) GER +21"
7 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +21"
8 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +21"
9 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +21"
10 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team Hitec Products-UCK) RSA +21"
The following stage was flat, however due to crashes a few cracks occurred in the bunch; stage 2 winner Bronzini was caught behind a split, allowing Vos to impose herself on the sprint in the maglia rosa.
Stage 4: Alba Adriatica - Jesi (118km)
1 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 3'04'11
2 Shelley Olds (Ale-Cipollini) USA +st
3 Lucinda Brand (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +st
4 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +st
5 Jolien d'Hoore (Lotto-Belisol) BEL +st
6 Marta Tagliaferro (Ale-Cipollini) ITA +st
7 Elisa Longo Borghini (Team Hitec Products-UCK) ITA +st
8 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +st
9 Simona Frapporti (Astana-BePink) ITA +st
10 Barbara Guarischi (Ale-Cipollini) ITA +st
Stage 5 was another flat stage along the coast, with the same result.
Stage 5: Jesi - Cesenatico (118km)
1 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 2'53'30
2 Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) ITA +st
3 Shelley Olds (Ale-Cipollini) USA +st
4 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +st
5 Chloe Hosking (Team Hitec Products-UCK) AUS +st
6 Annalisa Cucinotta (Servetto-Footon) ITA +st
7 Carmen Small-McNellis (Specialized-Lululemon) USA +st
8 Giada Borgato (Estado de México-Faren) ITA +st
9 Lucy Garner (Giant-Shimano) GBR +st
10 Edita Janeliunaite (Forno d'Asolo-Astute) LTU +st
The following stage was the first real mountain stage, with three climbs; the final one of which was by far the biggest, before a descent finish. The middle climb was short but very steep, and it was here that Emma Pooley launched a move, with the only member of the previous attack groups able to stay with her being Rabo's youngest rider, 19-year-old Polish climber Kasia Niewiadoma. An elite attack group then formed in pursuit of Pooley, containing most of the best climbers (ex Pooley of course) in the women's péloton. On the final cat.1 climb Emma dropped the youngster who was then put to work in pursuit by Vos' group, and some big names lost a lot of time. Pooley was able to use her TT skills to stay away for the win, but the heads of state group still put 4 minutes into everybody else - Emma Johansson and Megan Guarnier losing 4 minutes, a group with Evie Stevie, Amialiusik, Antoshina and Luperini losing 6, and the surprisingly quiet Tatiana Guderzo losing 8, while last year's maglia bianca Francesca Cauz was no fewer than eleven minutes down.
Stage 6: Gaiarine - San Fior (112km)
1 Emma Pooley (Lotto-Belisol) GBR 3'05'46
2 Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +15"
3 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +15"
4 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +15"
5 Claudia Häusler (Giant-Shimano) GER +15"
6 Elisa Longo Borghini (Team Hitec Products-UCK) ITA +15"
7 Mara Abbott (United Healthcare) USA +15"
8 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) POL +1'06"
9 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +4'19"
10 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team Hitec Products-UCK) RSA +4'19
Vos continued her domination of the sprint stages in stage 7, while Pooley lost everything she gained yesterday by dropping another 2 minutes in a flat stage.
Stage 7: Aprica - Chiavenna (92km)
1 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 2'36'43
2 Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) ITA +st
3 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +st
4 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +st
5 Shelley Olds (Ale-Cipollini) USA +st
6 Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +st
7 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +st
8 Daiva Tuslaite (Forno d'Asolo-Astute) LTU +st
9 Elisa Longo Borghini (Team Hitec Products-UCK) ITA +st
10 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +st
Stage 8 was the queen stage, sort of. It was a one-climb Unipublic special - not that long and flat until the final climb - however the climb was pretty serious, ascending to San Domenico over 20km in length, of which the final 11km were categorized, averaging
a pretty solid 7,8%. It was time for the big climbing guns to go for it, and that's what we got. In a repeat of 2010's epic duel on the Stelvio, we were left with Emma Pooley and Mara Abbott duking it out, only this time it was the Briton who got the best of her American counterpart in a tense battle; the time put into the rest of the field was however never likely to be enough to dethrone Vos, unlike last year when the stage came directly off the back of the Monte Beigua MTF, and Vos had no answer to Abbott's onslaught.
Stage 8: Verbania - San Domenico di Varzo (92km)
1 Emma Pooley (Lotto-Belisol) GBR 2'32'49
2 Mara Abbott (United Healthcare) USA +5"
3 Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +29"
4 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +53"
5 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +1'27"
6 Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +1'28"
7 Claudia Häusler (Giant-Shimano) GER +1'53"
8 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +1'53"
9 Tetyana Riabchenko (SC Michela Fanini-Rox) UKR +1'58"
10 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) AUS +2'01
It's nice to see a few changes to the names, unfortunately high mountain races have been one of the biggest casualties of the recent budget cuts in the women's calendar, so there are few true specialists like Pooley or Abbott.
With one stage remaining, the GC therefore looks like this:
1 [leader general] Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED 24'14'07
2 [leader youth] Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) FRA +16"
3 Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +1'17
4 Mara Abbott (United Healthcare) USA +1'39
5 [leader Italian] Elisa Longo Borghini (Team Hitec Products-UCK) ITA +1'46
6 Claudia Häusler (Giant-Shimano) GER +2'47
7 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +6'27
8 Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) NED +6'44
9 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +6'57
10 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabobank-Liv-Giant) POL +7'10
Vos also leads the points competition, and Pooley (12th on GC) is the queen of the mountains.