Antonia Niedermaier goes third ahead of Isabella Holmgren on climbing day in the Dolomites
Giro d'Italia Women: Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) takes the reduced-group sprint for her first-ever stage win at the Giro(Image credit: Getty Images)
Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) won stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia Women, easily beating Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), and Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) in a sprint of four that had formed on the last climb of the day.
On a hard mountain stage through the Dolomites with the first-category climbs of the Passo Tre Croci and Passo di Sant'Antonio, the remnants of a large breakaway were caught by the group of favourites on the first ascent of the climb to Costa.
Vollering, Holmgren, Niedermaier, Van der Breggen, and the latter's teammate Valentina Cavallar (who had been in the breakaway) crested the Costa climb together, but more riders came back on the descent.
Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) launched a downhill attack, and as the top GC favourites took a breather, the Italian was 37 seconds ahead of a group of 14 riders at the finish passage with 23.2km to go.
On the second ascent to Costa, though, Vollering attacked right from the bottom, and only Niedermaier, Van der Breggen, and Holmgren could follow. They quickly passed Trinca Colonel, and on the rest of the climb, Vollering, Van der Breggen, and Niedermaier each took turns leading this elite group.
On the final climb (L-R) are Anna van der Breggen of SD Worx-Protime, in the Pink Leader Jersey, Antonia Niedermaier of Canyon-SRAM, Demi Vollering of FDJ United-SUEZ and Isabella Holmgren of Lidl - Trek, in the White Best Young Rider Jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
At the top of the climb, they were 39 seconds up on Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), with a group of six led by Marlen Reusser (Movistar) at 54 seconds.
Van der Breggen pushed hard on the descent, but the four riders came together again. Despite attacks by Holmgren and Niedermaier, they entered the finishing straight together, and Vollering won the sprint.
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“I’m very happy to take the victory here, it’s my first stage in the Giro. It was a really long and hard day. We wanted to have some riders in the breakaway, and we had Amber [Kraak] and Lauren [Dickson], that was perfect. When we bridged to Lauren, she did an amazing job, it’s incredible to see what she’s able to do in her first-ever Grand Tour,” Vollering thanked her teammates after the stage.
“Maybe I went a little bit too early [on the final climb], so in the end, I could not make a difference anymore. But it was a really nice day. We raced with everything we had."
In the GC, Vollering moved to second place as Reusser lost almost a minute, and Longo Borghini also lost 15 seconds plus time bonifications.
“I did not expect that they would drop today, and it’s nice to have a bit more time on them. But Anna still has one minute on me, so we need to try to find some of her weak spots,” Vollering said, clear about her goal of overall victory.
How it unfolded
A large breakaway formed early on the stage as the peloton rode up the valley to Cortina d’Ampezzo where the first-category Passo Tre Croci (7.9km at 7.2%) began.
The 22 escapees were Eleonora Gasparrini, Lara Gillespie, and Erica Magnaldi (all UAE Team ADQ), Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal), Maya Kingma (Aromitalia Vaiano), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM), Kristen Faulkner, Mirre Knaven (both EF Education-Oatly), Lauren Dickson, Amber Kraak (FDJ United-Suez), Thalita de Jong, Marit Raaijmakers (both Human Powered Health), Lucinda Brand, Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), Caroline Andersson, Nadia Gontova (Liv AlUla Jayco), Mareille Meijer (Movistar), Emilie Morier (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), Becky Storrie (Picnic PostNL), Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime), Marion Bunel, Viktória Chladoňová (both Visma-Lease a Bike), and Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility).
They were 3:21 minutes ahead of the peloton at the bottom of the Tre Croci, and 17 of them stayed together to the top where Andersson won the mountain sprint. On the Passo di Sant’Antonio (8.3km at 7.5%), Dickson, Cavallar, Bunel, Gontova, and Benito emerged as the strongest riders in the breakaway, dropping the others to pull clear.
FDJ United-Suez set the pace in the peloton, reducing the group to fewer than 20 riders, and halfway up the climb, Reusser launched a surprise attack. After bringing Reusser back, Vollering pushed the pace, gapping a.o. Longo Borghini who eventually made her way back at her own speed.
Caught from the breakaway, Meijer then led the group of favourites over the top, 1:48 minutes behind Dickson, Cavallar, Gontova, and Bunel. Benito returned to the front group on the descent, but with their gap getting ever smaller, each rider now started to look around for her GC leader.
Trinca Colonel attacked into the climb to the village of Costa (4km at 9.1%), and Gontova waited for her, then Vollering made a move that was followed by Niedermaier, Reusser, and Van der Breggen. Dickson slotted in at the front of that move and pulled so hard that Reusser had to let go. As the Vollering group reeled in Gontova and Trinca Colonel, Holmgren bridged to the front on her own, leaving Longo Borghini chasing alone with Reusser, Lore De Schepper (AG Insurance-Soudal), and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) a bit further back.
When Dickson was out of steam with 40km to go, 500m from the top of the climb, Vollering kept going, cresting the climb at the head of a group of five. Trinca Colonel and Dickson followed 10 seconds behind, Longo Borghini and Gontova were another three seconds down. The group with Reusser was 36 seconds behind already.
Longo Borghini, Trinca Colonel, Dickson, and Gontova came back on the false flat at the top, and Trinca Colonel immediately went to the front and attacked on the technical descent. The Italian quickly pulled ahead, and Reusser’s group eventually returned to the other GC contenders in the valley, 25km from the finish.
Dickson went to work at the front of the GC group and rode hard all the way into the climb to Costa where Vollering’s attack split the group of 14. The European champion flew past Trinca Colonel, then scored six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint with Niedermaier, Holmgren, and Van der Breggen on her wheel while Fisher-Black and Longo Borghini settled into a rhythm together as the closest chasers, followed by Cavallar, Magdeleine Vallières (EF Education-Oatly), Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal), De Schepper, and Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Reusser was chasing on her own behind them but eventually made it back to that last group and did most of the work, trying to limit her GC time loss. Up front, the maglia rosa Van der Breggen wanted to set a steady pace and took the lead again and again when Niedermaier or Vollering pushed past her.
Van der Breggen led over the top and then tried to split the group on the descent, but without success. On the last 4km, Holmgren and Niedermaier tried to anticipate a sprint several times but were closed down by either Van der Breggen or Vollering. Holmgren attempted to go long at the 500m mark but only ended out leading out the sprint. Vollering jumped from the last position in the group with 250m to go and quickly got a gap 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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