Giro Rosa: Marianne Vos wins stage 7

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Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) won her third stage of this Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile - and her 24th overall. The Dutch veteran was fastest on the uphill finish of stage 7 in Fara Vicentino after a nervous hilly stage with lots of attacks. Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) finished second ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo).

"I had to really dig deep today," said Vos after the stage. "It was a beautiful stage, hard from the beginning, with constant attacks in the final. I tried to cruise with some of them, and then on the last climb, I just tried to do the right things. I made the right move, and actually couldn't believe I had it."

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) continues to wear the maglia rosa but lost a few seconds to Van der Breggen who is now 4:08 minutes behind, with Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) in third place at 4:23 minutes.

How it happened

The stage from Cornedo Vicentino to Fara Vicentino was a very hilly affair. The 128.3 kilometres offered three classified climbs interspersed with numerous other hills. Riders got a first taste of the finish with 56 km to go when they rode up the 3.6-kilometre, 4.6-percent finishing climb to San Giorgio di Perlena. After this, the riders did two laps of the Circuito della Rosina with a 1.6-kilometre, ten-percent climb, and on the way back they faced the short, cobbled Muro della Tisa before the finishing climb to Fara.

There were many attacks throughout the stage, but it took a long time before anyone really got away. Attrition had whittled the peloton down to about 40 riders at the start of the Rosina circuit with 45 km to go.

Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) attacked on the first, unclassified ascent of the Rosina climb and built an advantage of up to 55 seconds. Tayler Wiles (Trek-Segafredo) and Leah Thomas (Bigla) went after Kirchmann the second time up La Rosina, but they never made it to the front and were caught again by the peloton.

Within the final 20 kilometres, it was Riejanne Markus (CCC-Liv) who tried to bridge to Kirchmann, but she couldn't reach the Canadian either and was reeled in again. A move by Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) on a climb before the Muro della Tisa broke up the peloton, and a group of 12 riders caught Kirchmann.

Brand tried another attack before leading the group into the steep, cobbled Tisa climb where the group fell apart, with only seven riders staying together over the top. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott), Van Vleuten, Van der Breggen, Longo Borghini, Brand, and Vos went into the downhill together.

After a short acceleration by Brand, Spratt made her move with 6.8 km to go as riders came back from behind, but Longo Borghini closed the gap to the Australian. Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini) and Vos then got away, and Erica Magnaldi (WNT-Rotor) as well as Brand bridged to them while the rest of the group could not get a chase organised.

Another group came up from behind at the foot of the finishing climb, and the four at the front were caught with 2.5 km to go. An acceleration by Eider Merino (Movistar Team) was followed by Vos, but Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg) closed the gap. As Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) took control of the group, it was Team Sunweb's Floortje Mackaij who sped past the group after a solo chase and opened up a gap of seven seconds.

Katie Hall (Boels Dolmans) took up the chase, and Mackaij was caught with 700 metres to go. Van Vleuten went to the front 500 metres from the line to set the pace for her teammate Spratt. Van der Breggen came around the Mitchelton-Scott riders to start the sprint, but Vos squeezed past her with 100 metres to go to win her third stage of this Giro Rosa.

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