Giro Donne: Niedermaier holds off Van Vleuten to win dramatic stage 5

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Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) won stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia Donne with a 24-kilometre solo, narrowly holding off maglia rosa Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) to take the biggest victory of her career.

Niedermaier had attacked just before the top of the penultimate classified climb of the day and started the six-kilometre Sant'Ignazio with a one-minute advantage on the group of favourites.

Van Vleuten and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) made their move on the final climb and quickly distanced the rest of the group, but Niedermaier held on to 11 seconds on Van Vleuten and 14 seconds to Longo Borghini at the top.

On the technical descent, Van Vleuten went off the asphalt but did not crash and quickly returned to the road. Longo Borghini was less fortunate, overcooking a corner, crashing into the forest, and losing a lot of time.

The final kilometres to the finish were a pursuit race between Niedermaier and Van Vleuten, but Niedermaier managed to hold on to an eight-second gap.

“I’m really overwhelmed because it’s my first Giro Donne, and I’m so young. I was just pushing and trying to attack, and until the end, I was like, ‘uhm, can I do it or not,’ but at the finish line, I realised that I did it. It was a great feeling,” said the 20-year-old stage winner.

“I think this victory is for my grandma because she died this year, and it was really sad for our family because she was one of the closest persons to me,” Niedermaier dedicated her first Women’s WorldTour victory to her grandmother.

At 1:26 minutes down, Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) led home the next group with Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich), Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek).

These time gaps mean that Niedermaier makes a big jump to second overall, 2:07 minutes behind Van Vleuten. Ewers remains third overall but is now 2:18 minutes down.

How it unfolded

Stage 5 had been marked as the queen stage of the race, with the 10-kilometre Passo del Lupo beginning only 15km from the start in Salassa. 

Van Vleuten set the pace from the bottom, reducing the peloton to a group of eight, including Niedermaier, Marta Cavalli, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (both FDJ-SUEZ), Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind), Ane Santesteban (Team Jayco AlUla), Longo Borghini, and Realini.

At the Cima Coppi, the highest point of the Giro Donne, only Realini was still on Van Vleuten’s wheel. Fisher-Black and Longo Borghini bridged to them after the descent, with 60km to go. Cavalli, Niedermaier, Erica Magnaldi, Silvia Persico (both UAE Team ADQ), and Labous were 1:25 minutes behind, a third group with Paula Patiño (Movistar Team), Ewers, her teammate Magdeleine Vallieres, Uttrup Ludwig, García, Esmée Peperkamp (Team dsm-firmenich), Santesteban, Fem van Empel (Team Jumbo-Visma), Anna Shackley, and Blanka Vas (both Team SD Worx) was almost three minutes down.

The front group did not push on over the unclassified climb in the middle of the stage, meaning that the group with Niedermaier made contact with 35km to go, just as the long but gradual climb to Vietti began. 

The group around Ewers was 3:12 minutes behind at this point, but as the nine frontrunners couldn’t agree to cooperate, that gap got smaller and smaller. Van Vleuten put in a brief attack that only Fisher-Black, Niedermaier, and Longo Borghini could follow, but the front group came back together. Persico was the next to attack, and Labous bridged to her, then Niedermaier made her move on the last kilometre of the climb with Fisher-Black on her tail.

Niedermaier and Fisher-Black quickly jumped to Persico and Labous, and the German continued her attack, cresting the top of the climb alone. Fisher-Black was caught after the descent, and the group around Ewers finally came back 15km from the finish, just at the start of the Sant’Ignazio climb.

Magnaldi and Patiño made a short-lived move, then Peperkamp set a high pace. Fisher-Black’s acceleration completely split the group as only Van Vleuten, Longo Borghini, Realini, and García could stay with her.

At 12km from the finish, Van Vleuten put in her attack that only Longo Borghini could follow, and unlike on stage 4, the Italian champion took turns on the climb, making even Van Vleuten work hard to hold her wheel. Niedermaier climbed at her own pace and made it over the top just 11 seconds ahead of the maglia rosa, who had jumped away from the Italian champion on the final metres of the climb.

On the descent, Van Vleuten briefly went off-road in her chase of Niedermaier. In the same turn, Longo Borghini came a cropper when she misjudged the corner, lost control of her bike, and somersaulted over an earth mound. She got up eventually and reached the finish but lost minutes and any chance of a good GC result.

Up front, Niedermaier had descended well and defended her small advantage on Van Vleuten on the uphill finish into Ceres, also taking the maglia bianca as the best U23 rider. Picking up points on all three climbs, Van Vleuten took back the lead in the mountain classification from Cavalli – but as Van Vleuten leads the GC, Fisher-Black will wear the maglia verde on stage 6.

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