Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) won stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia Women, outsprinting Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) and Chantal Pegolo (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria) in Salice Terme from a group of six after bridging to the early breakaway on the descent of the day's only classified climb.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) also jumped across to the break and drove the group in the final, trying to take as much time as possible for the general classification.
At the top of the third-category climb to Pietragavina with 26.9km to go, Gaia Segato (Vini Fantini-BePink), Pegolo, and Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), were still 31 seconds ahead after having been in the break all day.
Gery and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) snuck away from the peloton on the descent and bridged to the escapees, as did Brand Longo Borghini. The last 20km turned into a nail-biting pursuit, with the front group being 40 seconds up at the 10km mark, but with the sprinters' teams chasing, the group was only a few seconds ahead on the line.
“I hadn’t even thought about winning before the stage, I’m really, really happy,” said Gery.
“At the top of the climb, I accelerated a bit to get Demi [Vollering] into a good position for the descent. Then we got separated, I ended up with Persico, and I thought I’d made a mistake. But in the end, Longo Borghini caught up to us, so I didn’t have to pull.
"It was a bizarre situation, but the girls behind managed the gap. In the final, I could play it tactically, especially with Brand also there going for the stage."
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How it unfolded
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The 159km stage from Sorbolo Mezzani to Salice Terme started with 100km of flat. The break of the day formed in the first 15km, consisting of Pegolo, Marjolein van 't Geloof (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Jackson, Sara Luccon (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), and Segato.
They gradually built an advantage of up to 8:42 minutes with 100km to go. Sara Fiorin (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Robyn Clay (PicnicPostNL) as well as Eleonora la Bella (Aromitalia Vaiano) and Giorgia Serena (Mendelspeck E-Work) tried to bridge to the front group but never made it across and were eventually caught by the peloton.
As the peloton started to chase in earnest, the mass crash interrupted the race. Although the GC leader was down, the peloton could not afford to wait for her as the break was still five minutes ahead with 54km to go.
A minute and a half behind the peloton after the crash, Van der Breggen and her teammates quickly organised a chase and returned to the bunch 45km from the finish. Reusser came back a kilometre later, having crashed a second time in the chase.
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Van't Geloof lost touch with her companions at the intermediate sprint in Zavattarello with 33.6km to go, already on the first part of the 9km climb to Pietragavina that consisted of two steeper bits with a flat section in between. Luccon lost contact on the second part of the climb as Segato set the pace, leading Pegolo and Jackson over the top.
Gery and Persico got away on the descent, then Brand and Longo Borghini also got a gap and went all-in to catch up to the break, though for various reasons. Brand saw an opportunity to win the stage, and Longo Borghini wanted to take back time in the GC. Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) also tried to bridge across but never made it.
When Longo Borghini reached the front group with 19km to go, she and her teammate Persico immediately took charge. The peloton was 17 seconds behind, and FDJ United-Suez were chasing at first until Vollering gestured for her teammates to stop. This left the chase to Canyon-SRAM who were trying to protect Antonia Niedermaier's GC position as well as Uno-X Mobility and Human Powered Health who backed their sprinters, Linda Zanetti and Maggie Coles-Lyster, respectively.
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With Longo Borghini pushing hard, Persico doing what she could, and Jackson taking the occasional turn, the front group passed the 10km mark 40 seconds ahead of the peloton which would have moved Longo Borghini very close to the overall podium.
They were still 33 seconds ahead with 5km to go, but Persico had nothing left to give and was dropped inside the 3km mark. With the peloton surging in the final, the group was only eight seconds ahead on the finish line, and as there was a gap between the first four riders and Longo Borghini, the Italian champion only gained five seconds on her GC rivals in the end.
Brand led the group through the final turn 200m from the line and opened the sprint, but Gery came around her in the final metres to win the stage.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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