The Italian autumn classics have their women's versions, or at least this weekend's ones do, so we have had some nice hilly racing this weekend. In fact, some of it was even televised, with
20 minutes of highlights from the Giro dell'Emilia Donne. After the Worlds, a large number of the biggest names have shut up shop for the season, so there were precious few signs of the World Tour big guns on hand, with none of the big Dutch teams travelling to Italy, as well as only a fairly bare-bones Alé-Cipollini squad. The Italian and Italian-based squads were all competing, of course, as well as a fairly strong national team including Elena Cecchini and Tatiana Guderzo among their number. Cylance were also on-hand to add some international flavour, with Rossella Ratto having been the inaugural winner of the race back in 2014, but also with some useful WWT names like Doebel-Hickok and Sheyla Gutiérrez racing.
Now, the women's Giro dell'Emilia is not quite as, well, interesting, route-wise, as the men's, as the races are somewhat coterminous, therefore the women compete around a flat course in the Po floodbasin while the men are handling the longer part of their course, and the ladies finish with just a single climb of the Madonna di San Luca. That's right: it's about as true a Unipuerto race as it can get, as the traditional "_________/" is just about
the actual profile as opposed to the oftentimes sarcastic approximation thereof, so it does become a pure power test on the final ramp, even if some of the riders who are here this weekend for the flatter GP Bruno Beghelli, like Chloe Hosking, decided to have a bit of fun up front to start with. The national team penned them back using the power of World and European Junior TT champion Elena Pirrone, who was chasing one of her future teammates too, since Astana's Lisa Morzenti was in the escape. Once they got to the final climb, Cecchini and Doebel-Hickok traded time at the front before the attacks started in earnest, and the first really important move came from Rossella Ratto, off the front as the riders came through that chicane under the walls. Guderzo was the first to respond, the veteran looking to salvage something from a disappointing year on home turf. Rossella went again and again but couldn't rid herself of the 2009 World Road Race champion. As the road shifted back to the right of the walls, the gradient eased and Ratto seemed to want Tatiana to take a turn, but she called her younger adversary's bluff, with Rasa Leleivyte chasing onto the duo and a stronger finisher than either. The Lithuanian rode through to the front, and then Guderzo launched her move; Rasa had just chased on so had not had sufficient recovery time to respond, while Ratto's several attacks had left her unable to answer, and the national team took its second win in four years here, after Elisa Longo Borghini won in her national colours in 2015. Ratto had one more forlorn attempt to catch her compatriot, but she didn't have enough left and sank behind Leleivyte again at the end. Nevertheless, after a couple of lean years, this last few weeks I've grown much more happy with Rossella's form, she seems rejuvenated and much more like the rider we know she can be. Whatever the truth of the gluten story, a good off-season and she could be very good next year.
Because of the limited cameras, we only really saw the top 3 once Rossella's move dropped the bunch, but behind some interesting results including an excellent team showing for BTC City-Ljubljana with 4 riders in the top 11, as well as Cylance, with a surprisingly good climbing performance from Sheyla Gutiérrez making the top 10. Erica Magnaldi, a Gran Fondo rider guesting with BePink, also made an impressive top 10 while some strong climbers were off the pace, such as Ana Cristina Sanabria of Servetto-Giusta; top 10 on the Izoard but outside the top 20 today, as well as Nikola Nosková, although considering she's been sent to the Giro and had a much higher workload than anticipated and may also be preparing for CX season that's perhaps not so surprising. Fran Cauz entered her first race since the Giro and finished it, baby steps...
1 Tatiana Guderzo (Italy National) ITA
2 Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia-Vaiano) LTU +3"
3 Rossella Ratto (Cylance) ITA +5"
4 Polona Batagelj (BTC City-Ljubljana) SLO +16"
5 Urša Pintar (BTC City-Ljubljana) SLO +16"
6 Hanna Nilsson (BTC City-Ljubljana) SWE +29"
7 Krista Doebel-Hickok (Cylance) USA +35"
8 Sofia Bertizzolo (Astana) ITA +37"
9 Sheyla Gutiérrez Ruíz (Cylance) ESP +38"
10 Erica Magnaldi (BePink-Cogeas) ITA +38"
The GP Bruno Beghelli's female version is a comparatively easy race, just 80km in length and over a course which is best described as rolling; there is a climb on the circuit but much of it is little more than false flat, and so just like last year's inaugural edition, the race was won in a sprint. Despite her presence, however, defending champion Chloe Hosking didn't get to contest the final sprint, having already withdrawn, but that didn't prevent Alé-Cipollini from celebrating, however, as in her place the Italians managed to get another veteran former World Champion to win on home soil, with 2007 rainbow jersey winner Marta Bastianelli taking the victory ahead of Valcar-PBM's teenage prospect Elisa Balsamo and junior sensation Letizia Paternoster. Form at this late stage in the season tends to be variable, so it was perhaps not a surprise to see a few of those riders who'd gone well in the Giro dell'Emilia also go well here despite the different natures of the finish, with three riders making the top 10 of both races and a couple more - Cecchini and Bujak - being just outside the top 10 of both. This pretty much closes the European road racing season, however there are the small South African races in November.
1 Marta Bastianelli (Alé-Cipollini) ITA
2 Elisa Balsamo (Valcar-PBM) ITA +st
3 Letizia Paternoster (National Junior) ITA +st
4 Sofia Bertizzolo (Astana) ITA +st
5 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Italy National) ITA +st
6 Sheyla Gutiérrez Ruíz (Cylance) ESP +st
7 Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia-Vaiano) LTU +st
8 Nadia Quagliotto (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) ITA +st
9 Rachele Barbieri (Cylance) ITA +st
10 Michela Balducci (Giusfredi-Bianchi) ITA +st