Giro d'Italia Donne: Lorena Wiebes sprints to stage 5 win

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Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) has taken her first stage win in the Giro d'Italia Donne, winning the mass sprint on stage 5 in Carugate. Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) would take second, followed by Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) in third.

"The team controlled the whole race, and we set up a lead-out train. After the last corner, especially Coryn put the speed so high that I only had to sprint for 150 metres, and that was enough," said Wiebes thanking her teammates.

Asked about the points classification, Wiebes denied that she was targeting the cyclamen jersey and said that the team was hunting for stage wins: "Tomorrow is a nice day for Coryn because she is better in the hills. There is another flat stage later, I will go for that. We have a strong team with the other girls as well and will go for more stage wins," she explained.

Anna van der Breggen finished the stage safely inside the peloton continues to lead the race overall: "We are only halfway, but it is good to finish today without crashing. It was a hot day and still pretty tough," she summed up the sprint stage.

Looking ahead stage 6 that will go around the Lago di Como, Van der Breggen said that there could be more action: "There can be a lot of wind, so there could be echelons. We need to be at the front and can make the echelons, that can be nice, otherwise maybe it stays like today and the sprinters will keep it together for a stage victory. We need to see how much wind there is." The maglia rosa is clearly well-prepared.

How it unfolded

After the sign-in at the Castello Sforzesco in Milano, known as the start venue of the men's Milan-San Remo, and a neutral section passing the city's famous sights, the real start was given on the outskirts for a 120.1 km flat stage. After riding 15 kilometres towards the finishing town, the race did four laps of a circuit around Carugate.

On the second lap, Matilde Vitillo (BePink) was the first to get away from the peloton, initiating a period of attacks. Eventually, Noemi Lucrezia Eremita (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria), Silvia Zanardi (BePink), Giorgia Vettorello (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), Federica Piergiovanni (Valcar-Travel & Service), and Novolodskaya joined Vitillo to form the break of the day.

The six escapees held an advantage of 2:23 minutes with just under two laps to go, but Team DSM never lost control of the race and, together with other teams, brought the gap down to 38 seconds with 15 km to go.

Novolodskaya attacked from the front group soon after, and while her former companions were caught seven kilometres from the line, the 21-year-old Russian stayed a few seconds ahead of the peloton for a while longer. However, she also had to give in to the sprinter's teams' chase efforts just after the four-kilometre mark.

Trek-Segafredo took charge at the front of the peloton with 3 km to go, followed by Canyon-SRAM at 2 km to go, but Team DSM had timed their sprint train perfectly and came to the fore under the flamme rouge with three riders still in front of Wiebes.

Norsgaard was on Wiebes' wheel but had no chance of beating the young Dutch sprinter; two bike lengths behind, Vos narrowly won the sprint for third place against Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo).