Giro Rosa: Van Vleuten wins stage 6 time trial

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Time trial world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) lived up to her role as favourite for the stage 6 individual time trial at the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile. Having taken the overall lead with a solo victory on the previous stage, Van Vleuten extended her advantage by winning the 12.1-kilometre uphill time trial in 24:31 minutes, 52 seconds faster than Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) in second place. Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) finished third, 1:48 minutes slower than Van Vleuten.

In the general classification, Van Vleuten now enjoys an advantage of 4:17 minutes on Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), who held on to second place overall by less than a second to Van der Breggen.

The time gap between first and second place is bigger than that between second and 14th.

Warming down on the rollers after the stage, Van Vleuten said: "I worked so hard for this, training with the guys and going on altitude to be optimally prepared. Every year I do the Giro, I learn and try to take those lessons to the next year. That's why I made the altitude camps, to become an alien a little bit," she joked, referring to Longo Borghini's comment after stage 5.

"It's not over until Sunday. I have done a recon of the stages, especially the next three days will not be easy, so we just take it day by day and keep focused. I have a strong team behind me, so I think we can do this."

How it happened

Starting in the village of Chiuro, the first 1.3km were slightly downhill before the ascent to the mountain village of Teglio started. On the remaining 10.8km to the finish, riders had to climb 500 metres of altitude.

Markéta Hájková (Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA) started second but passed Olga Deyko (Cogeas Mettler Look) on the course and set the first time of 29:48 minutes. Cypriot ITT champion Antri Christoforou (Cogeas Mettler Look) improved on Hajková’s time with 28:38 minutes and was then herself beaten by Silvia Valsecchi (BePink) who stopped the clock at 27:28 minutes.

Valsecchi's time stood for almost an hour before Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) set a new best time with 27:11 minutes. Tayler Wiles (Trek-Segafredo) was the first to go under 27 minutes, improving on Barnes' time by 18 seconds, and this benchmark was only beaten once the top-ten of the general classification went on the course.

Wearing the white jersey of the best U23 rider, Juliette Labous (Team Sunweb) finished after 26:25 minutes. While Erica Magnaldi (WNT-Rotor) and Katie Hall (Boels Dolmans) fell short of that time, blue jersey Longo Borghini confirmed her status as the best Italian at the race by taking the lead with 26:19 minutes.

Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) was two seconds slower than Longo Borghini, then Van der Breggen set the new best time in 25:24 minutes. Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) performed well, finishing in 26:40 minutes, but Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) was off her usual pace. Having started the day in third place overall, the South African climber stopped the clock after 27:59 minutes and dropped down the GC standings to ninth place.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) was the penultimate starter, with Van Vleuten being sent off two minutes after the Pole. The two riders finished at the same time as Van Vleuten made up the two minutes, winning the time trial with 24:31 minutes while Niewiadoma's 26:32 minutes still were good enough for sixth place.

The Giro Rosa continues with a hilly stage 7 from Cornedo Vicentino to Fara Vicentino on Thursday.

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