The Women's Road Racing Thread 2017

[RedheadDane]

But at least she didn't have to change jersey midstage.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

But at least she didn't have to change jersey midstage.

How awesome would it be to see her move up to the camera moto, take one jersey off and have the other one under it, like some sort of superhero?

Admittedly it would be far better if it was from team kit to national jersey, but you can't have everything.

 

[jmdirt]

I love this thread! I can come here and get a great recap from Libertine that I can't get anywhere else.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

But at least she didn't have to change jersey midstage.

How awesome would it be to see her move up to the camera moto, take one jersey off and have the other one under it, like some sort of superhero?

Admittedly it would be far better if it was from team kit to national jersey, but you can't have everything.

It would be a bit difficult to suddenly become national champion while participating in another race...

 

[yaco]

Gotta say that Annemiek finds inexplicable ways to give Van De Breggen wins. Olympic Games RR and somehow managed to lose 1m and 59s in a flat stage. AnnemiEk dominated the IT but is still third on GC. And Van De Breggen needs no help winning races. Come to think about Orica threw away GC in the Emmanuel Bira.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Don't remind me. It's just sad.

Anyway, today's highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=375knzNIKtk

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, Orica did a very bizarre job of managing that final stage, and then dithered on whether to go all out for Annemiek to catch Ash or to help Garfoot, but we shouldn't take away from Ash who climbed like an angel on Jaizkibel to force their hand.

Today however, as noted, was the time trial, but this was certainly no pan-flat rouleur's test, starting at sea level for an undulating beginning before a truly nasty murito; gradient signs suggest it reaches 30% and while that is likely a bit excessive, 25% is certainly not unrealistic. As a result the true TT specialists such as Villumsen were not expected to be prominent,compared to those with good TT credentials and strong all-round skills. Such as those who had been making the running in the race to date. The New Zealander did set the first real time-to-beat however by the end of the day she'd dropped out of the top 10. The highlights show how tough this was - climbing that last hill on a TT bike doesn't look comfortable and indeed many riders opted for road bikes with aero clip-on bars.

Orica - and of course van Vleuten herself - will be ruing their disastrous lacuna yesterday, because today Annemiek was sensational, especially considering she had to contribute to the chase to protect her time losses yesterday. We all know that Annemiek is the Prologue Queen, but this was a pretty special showing as, in order to prevent teammates going adjacent to one another, she found herself setting off two minutes behind Kasia Niewiadoma, a genuine GC threat and one of the best climbers in the péloton, and she caught the Pole and passed her on the run-in to the line. While the TT isn't Kasia's forte, this type of profile is good for her and she's far from a mug in the chrono either; in fact the WWT leader (in normal team gear today as WM3 haven't commissioned a WWT leader skinsuit in time) was 7th on the day, which tells you how strong Annemiek was. In fact, Anna VDB was the only rider to get within a minute and without yesterday's disaster she would be trading her QOM for the maglia rosa; as it is she has jumped back onto the podium but is still well over a minute in arrears. The 3rd best tine on the day went to Elisa Longo Borghini, so it feels like we are safe in our understanding of who the top three riders in this year's race are; Elisa lost over a minute to Annemiek but was close enough to Anna that she's only a minute off the lead. Annemiek will also be buoyed by Amanda Spratt turning in an excellent TT that puts her 5th on GC, within touching distance of Guarnier in front of her and making her a genuine threat that Boels have to be wary of, just three and a half minutes down. The aforementioned Niewiadoma has 4 minutes to pick up and doesn't seem in her best form, but one thing that we know is that if she has the legs to, she will attack; also interesting is that Claudia Lichtenberg was 8th on the day which moves her into the same GC position; it's her best TT at a UCI race other than the nationals since the Giro della Toscana all the way back in 2011 when she rode for Diadora-Pasta Zara.

Congratulations are also due to Hannah Barnes, who fought like an animal to defend her maglia ciclamino against Annemiek; she was ultimately unsuccessful, but 9th on the day is fantastic on a course that surely nobody would have predicted would have suited her? Also, Arlenis Sierra's more than impressive transition to European racing continued with the 6th place on the day - nestled between last year's maglia rosa and maglia bianca - pretty exalted company! Sunweb will likely the most disappointed with their day, losing all 3 riders from the upper echelons of the GC, with Brand missing the top 10, but Stultiens and Mackaij losing three and a half minutes to van Vleuten. Rivera had a decent TT but lost too much time in earlier stages; elsewhere Ludwig was over 3 minutes down and this is probably the final nail in the coffin for hopes she could step up from a GC point of view in Moolman-Pasio's absence; Cecilie is well suited to this hilly terrain but it is perhaps too soon in a race like the Giro. Perhaps key though, will be two DNSes - Trixi Worrack, the veteran German having not been herself this week, but also that means less firepower in the chase of breakaways, which Barnes will need if she wishes to reclaim the points lead, and Katrin Garfoot, another experienced head and, though she's been way from top form here in the Giro, she's a strong enough climber that she could have been a key tactical component for Orica, however she also did a LOT of work in the ultimately futile quest to bring van Vleuten back to the front yesterday to protect her team leader's legs.

Oh, and one of the Giro's biggest challenges - punishing heat - reared its head today, and that may fill some riders with a sense of trepidation as they head further south than normal this season...

Stage:
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED 25'29"
2 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED +41"
3 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +1'15"
4 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +1'48"
5 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +1'53"
6 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +2'01"
7 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +2'03"
8 Claudia Lichtenberg (Wiggle-High5) GER +2'10"
9 Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) GBR +2'13"
10 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +2'17"

GC:
1 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED
2 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +1'00"
3 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +1'36"
4 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +3'08"
5 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +3'29"
6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +3'59"
7 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +4'19"
8 Claudia Lichtenberg (Wiggle-High5) GER +4'36"
9 Shara Gillow (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope '86) AUS +4'50"
10 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +4'54"

 

[yaco]

Found out than Van Vleuten dropped a chain which must have cost her 20 to 30 seconds which made her IT even better. Interesting vision of the mechanic running alongside her to fix the chain.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Four laps of a 30km rolling circuit today, two climbs, one around 10k in, short but decent steepness, the other around 5km from home, but only around 4% average. The bunch was attentive throughout and though many riders attempted to escape - most notably Claudia Koster trying to follow up her second stage long escape - the bunch continually pegged them back once they got to around 25-30" up the road. The group that got the most leeway was the last one to get away, a trio of Hannah Barnes, Sofia Bertizzolo and Soraya Paladin managing to stretch their lead, gained on the penultimate passage of that final climb, to around a minute, aided by a nervous bunch behind. The remaining GPM points were hoovered up by Lucinda Brand and Lizzie Deignan, which suggests Annemiek wasn't too keen on expending much energy for the maglia verde once she was under no threat of losing it. Boels-Dolmans were very much working to keep this together, however, which surprises me to some extent as none of the three were any threat to the GC. The escapees were returned to the péloton shortly behind the final climb, though the high pace being set by the race leader's team made making any significant headway difficult; this resulted in nobody managing to evade the clutches of the péloton, leading to a further selective bunch sprint.

The first part of the Giro has not been kind to the Cervélo-Bigla team; first, problems in the TTT led to a disappointing finish and a greater deficit than anticipated. Then, team leader Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio withdrew after only two stages due to illness, and then their backup contender missed the split on stage 4 as well. It is therefore a huge, huge boost to them that they have one of the best weapons in the bunch for a selective sprint finale - step forward Lotta Lepistö, the Finnish sprint queen, who blasted through the troubles to salvage the team's race, pipping Coryn Rivera and Giorgia Bronzini to the line (certainly, this top 3 should tell you the kind of finish it was, though some more flat-stage sprinters like Hosking did also make the group. Most importantly, however, there was a gap between Hosking in 9th and van Vleuten in 10th, which means that Anna VDB, in the maglia rosa, has managed to sneak an extra 3" of buffer into her lead thanks to being up there in the finishing group. It also kept her safe from crashes behind; WM3 noted they had multiple riders affected but it doesn't appear that Kasia was one of them (she's back in the WT leader's jersey now so a bit easier to spot). Roxane Fournier made it in in 4th ahead of a Canyon rider - reports are conflicted on whether it's Cecchini or Guarischi though this should become clear as results finalize.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 6 highlights

Interesting to see how much work was done by the biggest guns after the trio was caught - van der Breggen stretching the race out to prevent others attacking, then Spratt helping. Alexis Ryan and Elisa had a brief attempt to gap the field on the descent which is interesting, also Elisa did quite a lot of work even into the final kilometre because the technical nature was beneficial to Bronzini, which Giada pointed out, as Giorgia is very good at placing herself with such approaches and picking her way forward to where she needs to be.

That's not just helpful for sprinters of course - it explains the 3" gap Anna got by being more attentive at the line than Annemiek; most of the other GC names held comfortably in the reduced group at that 3" time gap, however a further split trapped Claudia Lichtenberg behind it and she came in a full 26" behind Lepistö as a result; typical for somebody with such a mountain-biased skillset, unfortunately this is a problem the diminutive German has struggled to overcome throughout her career, and with Bronzini contesting the stage and Elisa being team leader there is no reason for either of them to be expected to assist either. Doesn't seem like the crashes were too bad, with only two DNFs - Leah Thorvilson, the former runner riding with Canyon, and Miriam Bjørnsrud for Hitec, and Thorvilson had already climbed off beforehand I think. Her withdrawal leaves Canyon rather bare bones - with neither PFP nor Brennauer riding and Amialiusik being injured in Britain, they've now been reduced to just four riders with Cromwell, Worrack and now Thorvilson withdrawing on consecutive days. Helpfully Barnes' stage win takes the pressure off those still in the race, and it does seem that Hannah has abandoned her tilt at the maglia ciclamino so there's less need to concern themselves with protecting her for that, but nevertheless it's surely a concern for a team that ought to be considered among the elite squads that they're so stretched here.

Stage:
1 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN 2'50'36
2 Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) USA +st
3 Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +st
4 Roxane Fournier (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) FRA +st
5 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA +st
6 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Lensworld-Kuota) ITA +st
7 Emilie Moberg (Hitec Products) NOR +st
8 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED +st
9 Chloe Hosking (Alé-Cipollini) AUS +st
10 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3"

GC:
1 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED
2 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +1'03"
3 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +1'39"
4 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +3'11"
5 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +3'32"
6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +4'02"
7 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +4'22"
8 Shara Gillow (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) AUS +4'53"
9 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +4'57"
10 Claudia Lichtenberg (Wiggle-High5) GER +5'02"

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 7 highlights

The problems with the design of the 2017 Giro came to the fore today as one of the toughest stages of the week for climbing suffered from the placement of those climbs so that, despite the riders' best efforts, it didn't wind up being as decisive as the organizers might have hoped for. The early uncategorized climbs did mean, however, that we got a nice strong breakaway which was able to gain some time as we often see late on in the Giro, as opposed to lame duck breakaways or the common race development pattern of several moves being chased down until the elastic finally snaps. The break featured a good mix of riders, with a couple of teams with strong representation. Canyon placed Elena Cecchini and Alexis Ryan both in the move, turning defence into attack with their depleted numbers, while Cylance had the versatile but - based on her early career breakthrough - underachieving Rossella Ratto and the developing Sheyla Gutiérrez, the Spanish champion (not that you'd tell from the Movistar-esque jersey) having by far her best ever season this year. Sunweb placed Sabrina Stultiens into the move to try to muscle back into the GC battle, while sprint-capable stagehunters like Eugenia Bujak and Lauren Kitchen made up much of the rest of the group. Former World Champion Tatiana Guderzo has had a disappointing Giro but started trying to rescue it a little and, subsequently, good cohesion in the group led to a solid lead building.

This stayed the case even over the main climbing obstacle of the day, as the group seemed relatively comfortable with one anothers' company; although Soraya Paladin as well as Guderzo is a decent climber, she was happy to back herself in the finish, Guderzo's form isn't great and Ratto, also among the best climbers in the group, appeared to be working to assist Gutiérrez, the team seeing the sprint as a better opportunity than leaving Rossella to fend for herself on a long-distance solo (probably true, but she's only 23 and I do want to see the old Rossella back); gaps created among the dozen were quickly annulled.

Among the main bunch, however, action was a bit more dramatic with Annemiek van Vleuten making her way to the front and shredding the field. As Longo Borghini joined the pacemaking we saw an absolute hammer blow to much of the field, which was initially shrunk to just 7; then to 5 as Spratt and Gillow were dropped leaving just Annemiek, Elisa, Anna VDB, Megan and Kasia - the strongest climbers in the race, so it seemed. Megan was yo-yoing, but then Kasia was struggling to hold on to the trio and it was only between the two of them that they regained contact over the summit, Megan knowing that she may be an invaluable hand to Anna's lead should she be under pressure from her two groupmates - pretty much undisputably the strongest three in the race at this point. Unfortunately for the quintet, however, unlike on stage 2, the descent had next to no technical challenges, was on a nice wide road, and was some way from the finish which meant that the chasing gang was able to organize itself after the descent began and on the subsequent rolling terrain. In particular Team Astana gathered its forces in the defence of Arlenis Sierra's top 10 GC position, having four riders in the group (Sierra, Beggin, Bertizzolo and Pavlukhina, the latter of whom doing the lions' share of the work), with most other major teams having representation either in the breakaway or the elite quintet. However, a lack of cooperation among the five compared to Astana's relay meant that the group was eventually nullified, and then a lot of impetus went out of the chase, leading to the group swelling to over 40 riders, from which Boels could send Armitstead and Canuel to help manage the front of the field, and ensure that the break didn't get far enough up the road to threaten any major upheaval on the GC.

In the end, the gap was pegged at just under a minute as the break played games in the run-in, but this eventually led to a sprint between the 12 (well, 10; Ratto and Cecchini did their jobs leading out their colleagues then sat up) and Cylance's tactical decision to favour their Spanish classics-tinted sprinter ahead of a more all-round Italian paid off, Gutiérrez repaying them with the biggest win of her career, narrowly outsprinting Soraya Paladin and Eugenia Bujak; Sierra led the péloton in 47" later to defend her GC position with aplomb but, apart from Nosková seemingly having a mechanical as she came in behind Lizzie (who dropped a few seconds) but was still credited with the bunch's time, no issues in the run-in means no time gaps among the major names, which is bitterly disappointing on one of the tougher stages in the race - although tomorrow's stage's profile perhaps played a role in that as well.

Stage classification:
1 Sheyla Gutiérrez Ruiz (Cylance) ESP 3'43'16"
2 Soraya Paladin (Alé-Cipollini) ITA +st
3 Eugenia Bujak (BTC City-Ljubljana) POL +st
4 Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) USA +st
5 Lauren Kitchen (WM3 Energie) AUS +st
6 Sabrina Stultiens (Team Sunweb) NED +st
7 Alison Jackson (BePink-Cogeas) CAN +st
8 Tatiana Guderzo (Lensworld-Kuota) ITA +st
9 Carmela Cipriani (Conceria Zabri-Fanini-Guerciotti) ITA +st
10 Clara Koppenburg (Cervélo-Bigla) GER +st

 

[RedheadDane]

Serious-but-guarded, what does that mean?

 

[bonaqua]

http://www.quotidiano.net/sport/claudia-cretti-giro-rosa-1.3252361

She is now in critical condition in neurology department after emergency surgery of shoulder and head injuries.

 

[RedheadDane]

No... no... no!

I thought the not life-threatening reports were the most recent ones...









Please! Let this be another Girdlestone... not another Broeckx... not - and I hate to say it - another Young.

 

[bonaqua]

News from Italy says that Claudia underwent surgery but there's still a risk of permanent cerebral damage :-(

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes, this was a later report, hadn't been aware of this until now. Looks like the immediate threat to her life is over, but there's a very good chance she may never be the same person again. Surgery lasted several hours, which is seldom a good sign. All hope that she can pull through; signs are it's just one of those incidents we can't ever fully prevent in road cycling, but certainly real concern for her and those close to Claudia.

 

[jmdirt]

Sending all of my positive energy to Claudia!

 

[GuyIncognito]

So many serious injuries this past year...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 8 was the de facto "queen stage" - not really much of one, but certainly the cumulative climbing - lots of slopes and ascending gradually in multiple steps, as well as the toughest uncategorized climb of the race - made it the hardest in terms of that. RAI's highlights package opens up with some touching footage of race director Giuseppe Rivolta talking with the remaining Valcar-PBM riders, who look pretty devastated in light of their teammate's horrendous injuries yesterday. Cretti appears to have been operated on successfully and for much of today has remained in an induced coma (don't know at time of writing if there's any further news) but the expectation is there will be some permanent brain damage. The team, to their credit, were given the option of withdrawing for personal reasons, but all raced on save for 19-year-old Marta Cavalli who appeared to have been a planned exit anyhow. Other non-starters were Amélie Rivat and Roxane Fournier, with few stages suiting them to come.

The stage itself was difficult to follow even by women's cycling standards; poor reception in the rugged terrain the race was passing through meant garbled or out-of-sync messages on race progress, plus some unusual developments within the race also helped make it difficult to get to grips with what was going on. The main major move of the day was initiated by Lensworld's Tetyana Riabchenko, the Ukrainian being a more than useful climber with plenty of experience and, given that she's raced most of her career on Italian or Italian-based teams, a deep familiarity with racing such roads as these. She hasn't won outside of her homeland since 2013, but she has been 12th, 13th and 12th in her last three tilts at the Giro, finishing top 10 on San Domenico twice, so she's got plenty of skills for a stage like this, so it was relatively dangerous to allow her to go even though the GC threat she posed was limited. Behind, a counter-move made by Lucinda Brand left the Dutch all-rounder in a strong position on the road given her descending skills, while the pace set by Amanda Spratt in service of team leader van Vleuten broke the splintered remains of the péloton into two potentially significant halves; all of the GC top names made the front group, however.

The descent was very, very technical, with some horrible cambers to add to multiple hairpin bends and some variable surfaces; Brand stalked her prey throughout and with 3km remaining, made the junction to Riabchenko (the conflicting and confusing nature of live tweeting clarified - which the pictures from RAI alone can't show us - Brand had caught the Ukrainian, crashed at 10k to go, caught her again at 3k to go, then attacked to win; it's only when you see her rinsing her wounds after the stage finishes that you see that Lucinda has been down). Meanwhile, Astana were setting the pace to try to gain some time for Arlenis Sierra, potentially in the time bonuses. The final, uncategorized ramp up to the line proved the end of the spent forces of Tetyana Riabchenko, the lengthy solo taking its toll on her and as Brand, who of course won both a sprint stage and a mountainous solo escape in the 2015 Giro, rode up to her wheel confidently, it was clear immediately which of the two would take the stage; the Sunweb rider made light work of her adversary, dropping her in a matter of metres, but the Ukrainian made it hard for her, making a lot of the time back to Lucinda and really pressurizing her; unfortunately for Lensworld, however, she ran out of climb, and as a result was unable to bring the Dutch rider back, allowing Brand to pick up Sunweb's first win at the Giro since Kirchmann took the prologues last season.

Astana were still pacing the péloton coming into the final climb, but Boels were becoming a bit uncomfortable, with Spratt, van Vleuten, Niewiadoma, Lichtenberg and Longo Borghini all nudging them down the line in anticipation of the final slopes. Unfortunately we didn't get to see who initiated hostilities, due to following Brand and Riabchenko's battle for the stage win, but given the race to date I'd suggest it's quite likely to have been either ELB or Annemiek; less likely Anna as she has the maglia rosa or Kasia as she's usually very keen to attack but hasn't had optimal form here, but either way Astana's work was for nought as a group of eight came to the line together featuring all the big favourites - van der Breggen, Guarnier, Canuel, van Vleuten, Spratt, Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini and Lichtenberg, with Meg winning the sprint to deny any bonus seconds to rivals of van der Breggen's lead (the highlights of this will show you just how much Claudia struggles in a sprint as well, losing a good couple of seconds) while they simultaneously put 15" into the other half of the group, led home by Arlenis Sierra and featuring other all-round talents like Cecchini, Blaak, Koster, Yonamine, Stultiens, Leleivyte and, perhaps most impressive of all, Hannah Barnes. The second péloton came in a little over half a minute further back, with Ludwig, Nosková, Gillow, Vysotska and Guderzo; the rest were over 10 minutes down.

So, what does this mean for the GC? Well, it's pretty interesting. Obviously at the top things are unchanged other than that Guarnier inches another 4" closer to the lead, but she's still some way off ELB and Annemiek and her teammate still has a comfortable-looking lead. However, Lucinda Brand's escapades today see her rocket up into 5th place overall, nudging ahead of Amanda Spratt by virtue of the 10" stage win bonus and taking advantage of the softer Giro parcours that is far more within her remit than any other we've seen in recent years; it also brings Sunweb back into the GC fold as, despite having nudged into the top 10 thanks to yesterday's escape and the intermediate bonuses picked up, Sabrina Stultiens drops back out of the top 10 today thanks to that late split; she had been ahead of Claudia Lichtenberg on countback but the 2009 Giro winner made the maglia rosa group today while Sabrina could not. Missing the selection drops Shara Gillow out of the top 10 as well, while Lichtenberg's strong performance at the end leapfrogs her a few seconds ahead of Arlenis Sierra. Outside the top 10, the maglia bianca moves shoulders as Floortje Mackaij was dropped today and lost over 10 minutes; the jersey now rests on the shoulders of the pre-race favourite to take it, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, so Cervélo have done pretty well out of the race with a stage win and potentially also a jersey, considering after a couple of stages they'd had a catastrophic TTT and lost their GC leader. Cecilie won't be unchallenged, though, as Nosková and Bertizzolo are both within striking distance (Beggin dropped away today too) although the latter is liable to be sacrificed as Astana are working hard to preserve Arlenis Sierra's GC position; however this was the stage liable to produce the biggest problems for the young Dane and definitely the Torre del Greco stage suits her well, and so taking that jersey off her is unlikely. Elsewhere it looks like it's pretty much nailed on Elisa is going coast to coast with the maglia azzurra, while van der Breggen is highly likely to reclaim the WT leaders' jersey from Niewiadoma at the end of the weekend. Five more riders dropped out during the stage, most prominent among them probably Eugenia Bujak, the Pole who came close to the stage win yesterday but paid for her efforts on today's lengthy (140+km) odyssey.

Stage:
1 Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) NED 3'46'10
2 Tetyana Riabchenko (Lensworld-Kuota) UKR +12"
3 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +1'33"
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +1'33"
5 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +1'33"
6 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED +1'33"
7 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +1'33"
8 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +1'33"
9 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +1'33"
10 Claudia Lichtenberg (Wiggle-High5) GER +1'36"

GC:
1 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED
2 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +1'03"
3 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +1'39"
4 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +3'07"
5 Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) NED +3'26"
6 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +3'32"
7 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +4'02"
8 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +4'22"
9 Claudia Lichtenberg (Wiggle-High5) GER +5'05"
10 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +5'15"

PS Brand's one-side dismount celebration is cool.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The penultimate day of the Giro Rosa looked like a compressed version of a Vuelta a Colombia profile, or perhaps a Vuelta stage from a northern city onto the Meseta, with some significant climbing early on, up to a plateau before a long flat run-in. To add insult to injury, because this is the Giro, just like it's men's counterpart, a lot of climbing was uncategorized, in fact the only categorized one was by far the shortest climb of the day - a punchy affair around 40km from the line with a maximum gradient of 19%. Before that, however, the péloton had to wend its way onto the inland plateau, which meant some long drags on some twisty roads, which dropped a number of fatigued riders who've been suffering in baking heat on the WWT's longest race - especially those younger and less experienced riders and some of the heavier pure sprinters who have been struggling. A few moves were initiated, with the first to gain any real distance being a six-woman move featuring Sofia Bertizzolo of Astana, Elena Cecchini, Simona Frapporti, Dani King, Floortje Mackaij (now without the maglia bianca, but liberated from being too close in GC to give any freedom to) and Giro breakaway stalwarts Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Romanian champion Ana Maria Covrig, both of whom have become regulars in late race stagehunting moves in the Corsa Rosa. They managed to get an advantage that rose up to around a minute before the péloton, led in the main by Boels-Dolmans, took note and started to mass their strength to nullify it, their main bones of contention being Mackaij and especially Cordon-Ragot giving targets for the likes of Brand or Longo Borghini to ride across to - especially as Audrey is a formidable TT challenger in her own right! The efforts taken over the final sections of the undulating first part of the stage enabled the group to thin the péloton out by some 50 riders or so; when they nullified the break they had best part of 10 minutes over the grupetto, who were in for a long day with wind forecast on the plateau.

The short but steep cat.3 climb didn't cause chaos among the big guns but it did, however, create carnage behind due to a different factor, that being an administrative error meaning traffic control went awry and cars were frantically pulled off the road to make room for the gruppetto. None of the top GC guns were tempted into a move with the flat run-in remaining and the exhausting stage yesterday, so it was down to stagehunters and helpers to make moves, with Cylance continuing their aggressive racing in the stage; with Kirsten Wild no longer in the péloton they had to look at other options to try to back up Sheyla's win a couple of days ago, Małgorzata Jasińska leading the way in a counter-move along with WM3's Lauren Kitchen and Anna Trevisi of Alé-Cipollini. Again though, a domestique of one of the major GC guns being in the move limited the freedom they were given by Boels-Dolmans' well-oiled machine that has been diligently defending Anna VDB's lead since day 2 (and Karol-Ann Canuel's the day before that). However, it got pretty tense for a while, the group still having some 37" with 8km to go on the frustrating run-in... with 5km they still had 27" and the bunch was going all-out to try to recapture them, shelling riders left and right; it was at this point that the escape and the number of teams still in it for the sprint really took its toll on the breakaway, however, the lead then plummeting down until the catch was made with a couple of kilometres remaining. And with Alé-Cipollini not having had to do any work in the chase because of Trevisi's presence in the escape, they then came to the fore, enabling 2007 World Champion Marta Bastianelli to score what is, incredibly, the first Italian stage win of the Giro Rosa, the veteran sprinter (who wasn't always but is now settled as a sprinter of course) taking advantage of her greater durability than many of the more limited fast-women (such as Wild or d'Hoore who couldn't make it to the finale here). Not that she didn't still have to beat some pretty high quality names, however, as there are some really great sprinters for these stages requiring heavier durability in the women's péloton; second place went to Lotta Lepistö and third to two-time World Champion Giorgia Bronzini, both absolute world class riders, with Lepistö already having won a stage and Bronzini scoring her fifth top 10 finish of the race; this did, however, prevent Arlenis Sierra from picking up the time bonuses she was contesting in order to try and creep ahead of Claudia Lichtenberg on the GC. Coryn Rivera was 5th just to complete the list of sprinters-after-tough-stages, although of course this season Coryn has shown that her durability is too much to be 'just' a sprinter anymore, and Sierra is clearly the same, having produced an excellent GC ride here, albeit taking into account that the unusually un-selective parcours has been favourable to her in that respect, and she will need to refine her climbing or get lucky with future route designs in order to replicate it on a more typical Giro.

Doesn't look like any changes at the GC end of things, and with the course tomorrow being a flattish circuit until the part-of-Vesuvio single climb (along similar lines to Bèe last year) it seems unlikely that Boels can drop the ball from here as it will take one hell of an ambush for Elisa or Annemiek to find the time gaps that they need, and the likes of Niewiadoma have too much time to make up without being able to pull the kind of numbers game Boels could were the roles reversed. It looks like it ought to be a coronation for van der Breggen and that, as I suspected, stage 2 was the most decisive of the entire race, and the TTT would prove way too decisive in the overall running, albeit not as apocalyptic as suspected, at least now Megan's picked up some time bonuses (without it she'd be level on time with Brand and 3" ahead of Spratt; Sierra would be ahead of Lichtenberg and just 2" off Canuel, which she could feasibly pick up in time bonuses tomorrow). There would be no mistaking the top 3 riders in the race though, as they've been head and shoulders the strongest trio from start to finish.

All told, it seems pretty safe that there ought not to be any changes to jerseys tomorrow although, unless she dropped from the péloton late on, Nosková's deficit to Ludwig in the young rider category isn't so much to be unachievable I don't think, though the final stage really suits Cecilie's characteristics (the team have taken to calling her Cille, which I might have to adopt as it's a bit less cumbersome!), barring disaster though Anna will take the maglia rosa all the way, Annemiek will take both the points and the GPM (the latter of which she's led start to finish), Elisa will go coast to coast with the maglia azzurra (and there aren't even, realistically, any challengers to her for it) and Boels will have the team prize by a mile.

Stage:
1 Marta Bastianelli (Alé-Cipollini) ITA 3'05'09"
2 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN +st
3 Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +st
4 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +st
5 Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) USA +st
6 Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) USA +st
7 Ilaria Sanguineti (BePink-Cogeas) ITA +st
8 Amalie Dideriksen (Boels-Dolmans) DEN +st
9 Emilie Moberg (Hitec Products) NOR +st
10 Natalya Saifutdinova (Astana) KAZ +st

 

[GuyIncognito]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Mgfs5Yrng

Stage 9

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Very fast racing on the circuit as teams look to pressurise Boels so it doesn't just become a final climb shootout. The group that's escaped and got a couple of minutes up the road includes a number of sprinters - Hosking, Lepistö, Rivera, presumably with the aim of being able to stick with the group if they're caught, having a headstart on the climb, or to be best placed to mimic last year's final stage, when Thalita de Jong took the win as the break was allowed to stay out there - as well as teammates of potential aggressors such as Plichta. I can't really see Anna losing the GC from here, she's looked far too assured on the climbs to date that only disaster can prevent it; Orica and Wiggle do not have anyone in the move; Sunweb and WM3 do, but they've also got triple the deficit to make up.

The gap has now extended to almost three minutes, with a counterattack of around 10 in the gap. The front eight are the four mentioned above, Alexis Ryan, Eugénie Duval, Małgorzata Jasińska and Silvia Valsecchi. Still trying to ascertain who's in the counter, apparently biggest GC threat is Olena Pavlukhina, who lies 20th overall. Boels seem quite content to let them have a bit of time, taking the bonus seconds out of the equation for Annemiek (and Elisa, but they don't really have to fear her sprint, when people like Sierra would also be sprinting for bonuses to aid her GC position).

However, the pace has gone up as the péloton approaches the all-important climb to the mid-point of the Vesuvio climb; the poursuivantes have been re-absorbed and the leading eight's gap is now barely over 30" coming into the final time past the intermediate before the climb; looks like a repeat of last year's breakaway success is unlikely, with how much is riding on this final climb.

The final climb is proving selective, fast pace early on and we now have a very select group at the front, being reported that it definitely includes van der Breggen and Niewiadoma, Spratt almost certainly. Other reports are unclear but most seems to agree Guarnier and van Vleuten are there - no mention of Elisa yet though! Official race twitter says it's Anna, Kasia, Amanda, Megan and Annemiek plus Lucinda Brand, with a lead of 20" over the chasers including Elisa - potentially a key problem for her, being 2nd in the GC, although she is an excellent descender, and she'll need all of that nous come the summit if she can't get across!

I assume either she did make it back or it was an error in reportage, however, since she was 2nd across the GPM after van Vleuten who thereby sews up the QOM jersey and is now odds on to keep the points jersey too. And on the descent, who should go but the three riders who've been the clear strongest competitors in the whole race, Annemiek, Elisa and Anna? My anticipation is one of the former two, who are strong and fearless descenders (even despite Annemiek's terrifying Olympic run-in with the concrete barriers) has tried to put the pressure on but Anna, as she has been throughout the race, has been a match for everything the two have thrown at her - although Boels' twitter seems to indicate the race leader went herself in order to pre-empt them!

But it seems the gap came to nothing as the race official account confirms that Megan Guarnier has taken the stage win in something of a sprint of the elites, a bit like the San Fior stage she took in 2015. The defending champion, who hereby relinquishes her crown to her teammate, outsprinted Amanda Spratt and Kasia Niewiadoma to take the victory, Spratt also defending her GC position ahead of the WWT leader in the process.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

OK, so it turns out the final move did make one difference, in that Lucinda Brand did not rejoin with the group and instead came in alone, 46" behind the leading sextet. This, combined with the time bonuses the riders contesting the stage win were able to accrue, dropped her to 7th on the overall GC, being surpassed by both Spratt and Niewiadoma at the line. The next group on the road came in a little over a minute behind the leaders, but there were no further changes to the top 10, as though Sierra was able to win the sprint of that group, Lichtenberg and Canuel were both safely tucked into the group and so the Cuban was unable to make any progress from 10th place, not that that isn't a great achievement in and of itself; also in that group Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig came home to secure the best young rider jersey.

Final stage highlights. Looks like Megan stayed with the top 3 on that final climb for a while too, which would also help explain why nobody could gap Anna, but does mean that the strongest climbers on the final day were the top 4 on GC, and three of them were the strongest climbers on the first day, so pretty comprehensive (the obvious issue then is that the relatively limited opportunities to exploit that on the parcours meant that the time gaps those three riders gained over the rest were far smaller than their superiority across the climbing stages would have suggested, and not for want of trying on their part, either).

The overall result therefore means that Anna has reclaimed the WWT leader's jersey from Katie Unknown, who will be almost unrecognizable in standard team issue gear after 18 months of Euro U23, U23 WWT, national champion, race leader, category leader and WWT leader's jerseys! Also, Cille has extended even further her enormous lead in the U23 WWT classification, which should be almost impregnable now. In the end, the race wasn't the most exciting edition and certainly though the stage Brand won and the initial stage around Maniago were quite exciting, there wasn't really anything to match San Fior 2014 or Madonna della Guardia 2016 - however that was to be expected from the somewhat disappointing parcours. Perhaps as the race was heading so far south and heat has been an issue at times in recent history, the organizers were wary of a multi-climb odyssey in baking heat, which I can understand, but still we will hope for a more escaladora-friendly route next year - however the good will out, and there can be no doubt that the three riders who finished on the podium were the three strongest riders in the race, and comprehensively so. And the GC was settled by a flat stage too, as without that time loss in Occhiobello, Annemiek would have won this one. She also bewailed the lack of opportunities to make differences on the climbs in her post-race interview, saying that she hopes next year's course will be a bit harder, and also that there will be some uphill finishes, echoing many fans' sentiments about the course.

Stage:
1 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA
2 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +st
3 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +st
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +st
5 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED +st
6 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +st
7 Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) NED +46"
8 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +1'04"
9 Janneke Ensing (Alé-Cipollini) NED +1'04"
10 Romy Kasper (Alé-Cipollini) GER +1'04"

Final GC:
1 Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) NED
2 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) ITA +1'03"
3 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +1'39"
4 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +2'57"
5 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +3'26"
6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Energie) POL +3'58"
7 Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) NED +4'12"
8 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +5'26"
9 Claudia Lichtenberg (Wiggle-High5) GER +6'09"
10 Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla (Astana) CUB +6'19"

 

[GuyIncognito]

Annemiek was echoing what we're all thinking about the course.

Anyway, the highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbtkBZ60twI

 

[Mozart92]

Elisa Longo Borghini has improved a lot with her GC, from 11th to 2nd :O

I'm really rooting for her, taking the World Cup from Anne van der Breggen won't be easy though, she looks invincible #femaleMerckx