As it happened: It's as you were in Giro d'Italia Women overall after a huge battle on Colle delle Finestre in an avalanche shortened stage 8
The Queen Stage is here, and the moment the race has been building toward, with the Colle delle Finestre climb, where anything can happen in pursuit of the maglia rosa
Good morning and welcome to the live coverage of the most eagerly anticipated stage of the entire Giro. It's stage 8 and we're high in the mountains.
Today we tackle the brutal and iconic Colle delle Finestre on the way to Sestriere. We roll out at 14:00CET.
Friday's seventh stage was hugely entertaining, would the break make it or would it be a bunch kick? In the end it was a mix of both.
Célia Gery wins stage 7 as Elisa Longo Borghini takes GC time.
This is one of the things they're racing for, even if the jersey is perhaps the most well known trophy from the Giro.
Today's stage takes the peloton from Rivoli in the far north west of Italy, to Sestriere, 106km and 2,900m vertical ascent later.
"Sometimes it's better not to know."
The Colle delle Finestre is the main climb of today's stage.
It joins the list of mythical climbs ridden in the Giro d'Italia Women.
Today will be a big day in the saddle, but first we have 2km of neutral, and we're rolling.
The opening 60km are almost as flat as they could be, but then the Colle delle Finestre rears up, taking the riders from 480m to 2169m above sea level. And with that over and done with, there's the final 9km ascent to Sestriere.
The official start
Here we go, this'll be a tense fight for the breakaway, with GC teams either defending or trying to get riders up the road.
At the moment the weather isn't too bad at the moment, sunshine and around 23º. Don't expect that to last, the mountain tops will cold and there's rain forecast, which could make this day even more tough.
It's a fast start so far, plenty of riders will want to get up the road, others will be hoping the break goes sooner rather than later.
Will Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) be climbing the podium in pink after the race?
We've not been going too long but the average speed is 42km/h. No wonder there's no breakaway yet.
The race is on a very gentle rise at the moment, it's no more than 3% and there's a gentle tail wind making it even harder to get a gap.
The first 60km of today's stage contain almost 600m of climbing. There are 2,300m in the final 43km.
We've talked about all the climbing but there is an intermediate sprint today. Coming at Meana di Susa, it's on the steep opening slopes of the Finestre.
Crucially there are 6, 4 and 2 bonus seconds there.
There's a really steep little wall coming up shortly, only about 300m in length, but the gradients are above 20%.
Gaia Masetti (Picnic-PostNL) had a small gap for a while, but she's caught.
We've not reached that wall yet, but we are on the shallow descent of the first slope, which is steeper than the uphill was, about -6%.
The average speed has dropped to 41km/h, but it's still quick. No seems to want to let anyone else up the road.
There's a bit of cross wind here, more of a cross breeze, but it may give an opportunity for a breakaway.
Defending champion, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) lost time early in this Giro, but ever since she's tried to take it back where she can.
"You always have to fight," downhill attack sees Longo Borghini move closer to the maglia rosa.
If any breakaway gets up the road they won't have long before they reach the bottom of the Finestre. It starts with 43km to go.
70km to go
The race is heading east now, following the autostrada highway along the valley of the Dora la Riparia river. It the wind was a cross breeze before, now it's a tail breeze, it's only around 8km/h.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) has been in the overall lead since her remarkable win in the mountain time trial, but can she defend after crashing yesterday?
She was among multiple fallers in a mass crash on stage 7.
Maybe that breeze is more like a howling gale, with it behind them, the average speed is approaching 44km/h.
We have a move off the front, a lone leader.
The lone leader has a gap of 33 seconds.
60km to go
A solo breakaway rider has more than 30 seconds on the bunch, though we don't yet know her identity.
The breakaway issue not a solo rider, it's reported as being 16 riders.
Of those, there are two of Demi Vollering's FDJ United-SUEZ team mates, Eva van Agt and célia Gery.
Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) is the best placed on GC, at 14.45 and will prove very useful to Isabella Holmgren and Niamh Fisher-Black. Silvia Persico will do a similar job for her team leader, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ).
50km to go
Our leading group of 16 has quickly build a lead of 1.36. The Colle delle Finestre begins in just seven kilometres.
The breakaway's advantage is now more than two minutes, but the climb is fast approaching.
At 2178m above sea level, the Colle delle Finestre is the highest point of the whole race, as a result it's the Cima Alfonsina Strada, the equivalent of the Cima Coppi in the men's race.
The Cima Alfonsina Strada is more than just a first category climb, it earns the first rider over the top 25 points, rather than 20 for the standard first category climb.
Alfonsina Strada is the only woman to have ridden and completed a men's Grand Tour. She rode all over Europe but entered the men's Giro in 1924 under the name Alfonsin. She was injured in a crash and excluded for being out side the time limit, but rode on, finishing ahead of the last placed rider.
We're fast approaching the intermediate sprint at Meana di Susa, the points and the bonuses will all go to the breakaway.
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News of an avalanche at the top of the Finestre where they're trying to clear the debris. Let's hope it doesn't disrupt the race, but more, let's hope everyone is OK.
Persico leads through the intermediate sprint, but the bunch are closing in now, they're just 42 seconds behind. Well, what is left of the peloton as riders are already being dropped.
At the top of the climb the road is apparently blocked and not only are the riders not able to get through, but following cars and, importantly, ambulances.
Only six riders are left in the leading group as the gradient takes its toll.
Marlen Reusser (Movistar) is slightly off the back of the favourites' group.
The pace is on in that group, Demi Vollering's FDJ team doing the damage.
The Colle dell Finestre is one of the sport's most iconic climbs. If 18km at an average gradient of 9.3% wasn't hard enough, there are around 8km to gravel at the top, though mercifully the steepest slopes are at the bottom.
The Finestre has witnessed so much cycling drama, most recently, at last year's men's Giro. There Simon Yates dropped his rivals, exploited their hesitancy and rode into pink on the same finish as today.
Lauren Dickson is leading the favourites' group, working for Demi Vollering. Anna van der Breggen and her DS Worx-Protime team mate Valentina Cavallar are right behind, with the group down to only a handful of riders.
40km to go
No news from the top of the climb.
The break has been caught, with Reusser right behind the favourites' group. Vollering now has reinforcements in the form of Van Agt and Gery and they go to work straight away, allowing Dickson to sit on the wheel.
Further back Cavallar seems to be struggling at the back of the group. That's unusual, she's a proven top level climber, but it would also be bad news for Van der Breggen, leaving the maglia rosa isolated with so much of the race yet to ride.
Back to the recent history of the Colle delle Finestre.
Yates was the victim in 2018.
Having led the race since stage 6, he capitulated on the Finestre, Chris Froome attacking and riding solo to won the stage and the stage and GC.
Van der Breggen has slipped away from Vollering's wheel, there is one rider between them, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-Sram).
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Femke de Vries is the only Visma-Lease a bike rider in the leading group. She's made a huge step up this year having come to the top of the sport later in life. She was third on the mountain stage at the UAE Tour Women earlier in the year and was looking forward to proving herself in the spring stage races.
Apparently the debris is being cleared from the top of the Finestre and we should be able to race on.
This is a huge ride from Reusser, yes she's been dropped from the favourites' group, but she's able to keep them within touching distance.
Meanwhile, World Champion Magdeliene Valllieres (EF Education-Oatly) has been dropped.
Yesterday's stage winner, Célia Gery has been leading the group for a while now, but she's starting to grimace and could be approaching the end of her tether.
There's one rider in today's peloton has won on the Colle dell Finestre, Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike). The young French rider soloed to stage and GC victory in the 2024 Tour de l'Avenir, beating Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) and Vuelta Femenina winner Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ).
Bunel is dropped from the leading group, but she is a start of the future.
Gery has done her work and is slipping back now, leaving Dickson to work for Vollering.
Cavallar had been looking as though she'd recovered, but she and Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) have been dropped.
35km to go
An update from the top the Finestre is that the race will finish one kilometre for the top of the climb, meaning we have 7km to the finish.
The change in the finish means there is less opportunity to gain time over race leader. The dynamic has to change now.
Longo Borghini is dropped as we goo onto the gravel.
Vollering, Dickson, Van der Breggen, Niedermaier and the Lidl-Trek pair of Isabella Holmgren and Niamh Fisher-Blash remain in the front group.
6km to go
Niedermaier heads to the front of the group, the Germain rider upping the pace. Van der Breggen is one the wheel, while Dickson is slipping back.
Watch for an explosive attack from Vollering.
Boom!
Vollering goes, but Niedermaier cancelled her out again. Vollering is back on the front though.
Vollering is really going hard now, Niedermaier can hold her, though Van der Breggen and Holmgren were briefly and slightly gapped.
Holmgren is dropped. Vollering still leads, but Niedermaier and Van der Breggen are clinging on.
4km to go
The gravel looks hard so a picture could make a difference here. The pace must have eased as Holmgren is back on, the Canadian going straight to the front.
Van der Breggen sits on Vollering's wheel.
The message from race direction reads as follows;
"Due to an unstable sheet of ice that could fall onto the road, for safety reasons the stage will finish approximately 1 km before the Colle delle Finestre GPM."
Niedermaier started the day in third place, 1.24 down.
Holmgren was fourth at 2.01.
3km to go
Holmgren attacks, Niedermaier brings her back, Van der Breggen then gets back on, with Vollering getting in the wheels seconds later.
Van der Breggen is at the front now, the pink jersey looking good, though surely Niedermaier will attack, she's looking very comfortable.
Vollering now, you can see the effort she's putting in, but she just cannot gap the others.
This is a proper ding-dong battle. Vollering is second wheel now, on Van der Breggen's wheel, but time is running out to make the difference.
2km to go
Van der Breggen gets out of the saddle on the gravel, she's still leading the group. Holmgren looks like she's beginning to struggle again.
The gradients are easier here. Vollering needs to try to find one minute on Van der Breggen and it looks like it may not happen.
1km to go
Niedermaier is still looking cool in third wheel as Van der Breggen is once again out of the saddle, she looks like she's giving is a squeeze, though the four women are still together.
On the front Van der Breggen leaves herself open to an attack, but do the others have anything left to make a difference, and can they take on minute out of her?
There are time bonuses on the line, 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
400m to go
Van der Breggen still leads, Holmgren is still there but still looks like she's struggling, is that her style? Can she take the stage?
Vollering goes to the front in the final few metres, attacks and gains time on her rivals as she wins the stage.
Holmgren comes across to take second place, Niedermaier third, with Van der Breggen in fourth.
With the time bonuses Vollering will have lost more than 10 seconds, but the continues to lead the race with one stage to go.
Despite the shortened stage, that was an exciting final, with Vollering swinging punches, but Van der Breggen ducking all but the final one, though the only time the maglia rosa lost was bonus seconds.
The pair go into the final stage with Vollering trailing her compatriot and former team mate by 50 seconds, with both surely hungry for success.
For Van der Breggen, her position as race leader might be a surprise, even to her, but overall victory will validate her return to the sport after three seasons as a sports director at SD Worx-Protime. Like all the riders at this level, she's a fierce competitor, but she had to go deep to hang on and may pay for the that, her less than optimal recovery and depleted team.
We'll know tomorrow.
Vollering too will be desperate to win, and not just to add the Giro to her Tour de France Femmes and Vuelta Femenina titles. Despite the warm hugs and chats at today's make shift finish line, there is beef between her and SD Worx, and she will want to prove - again - that she is the best in the women's peloton.
She has, however, not looked like the punchy rider we've grown used to. On stage five she tried multiple high-powered attacks to get away, and today she just wound up the pace, neither tactic worked until the final few metres. Has she got what it takes to overhaul her 50 second deficit?
Tomorrow's main climb is incredibly difficult, but tops out 90km from the finish and while there's more climbing to come after that, the road leaves Vollering few opportunities to make a difference.
Van der Breggen, on the other hand, has only four women in support, so if SD Worx are put on the back foot early enough she may struggle.
We'll find out tomorrow.
The final stage rolls out at 13:15CET and we'll be here to bring it to you. Thanks for joining us, see you then.
