Giro d'Italia Women: Lotte Kopecky dominates sprint to win stage 5

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After two second places on stages 2 and 3, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia Women, sprinting to victory in Foligno ahead of Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) and Arlenis Sierra (Movistar Team).

Team SD Worx-Protime was in control all day, only letting single escapees get away, and when Marta Jaskulska (Ceratizit-WNT) was reeled in with 8km to go, they set up a perfect lead-out for the world champion, dropping Kopecky off after the final corner 250 metres from the line to win the stage.

“The final was very hectic, a lot of roundabouts, very high speed, but I had amazing teammates the whole day, especially in the final, who kept me in perfect position. I think it was one of the best lead-outs I’ve ever had, just perfect timing. Elena Cecchini went with 500 [metres] to go, and Barbara took the final corner. I just started sprinting, and when I passed her, she already said ‘yes’, it was really nice,” Kopecky thanked her teammates after her stage win.

Due to the time bonification for the stage victory, the world champion reduced her deficit to maglia rosa Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) to only three seconds. She also extended her lead in the points classification to 43 points over Consonni, making her hopeful to keep the red points jersey to the end.

“It's a nice advantage already with only three stages to go, which are pretty hard where I think I have the better of Consonni, so I think it would be nice to keep it,” Kopecky said.

How it unfolded

Covering 108km between Frontone and Foligno, the stage only included one classified climb early on but, in typical Giro fashion, was still lumpy for most of the day.

In the heat, nobody managed to break away at first, and Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) won the QOM sprint in Morello. Blue jersey Clara Emond (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) also took points to further secure her lead in the mountain classification.

Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) attacked with 87km to go and had a gap of up to 20 seconds before being reeled in 73km from the finish. Next to break away was Alessia Vigilia (FDJ-Suez); she attacked with 66km to go and built a 31-second gap but was brought back after only five kilometres.

After unsuccessful breakaway attempts by Jelena Erić (Movistar Team) and Nora Jenčušová (BePink-Bongioanni), Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health) won the intermediate sprint in Sigillo.

Finally, it was Jenčušová’s teammate Tota Magalhães, already in the breakaway on stage 1, who attacked with 45km to go. The Brazilian quickly took 40 seconds on the peloton, but as this advantage shrunk again, Jaskulska counterattacked and passed her with 35.5km left to race.

Jaskulska kept an advantage of around 30 seconds for a long time, but eventually, the chase efforts of the sprinters’ teams, SD Worx-Protime in particular, brought her back to 15 seconds at the ten-kilometre mark, and Jaskulska was reeled in with 7.8km to go.

In a technical final, Zanardi was the only one to crash, going down in one of the roundabouts. At the flamme rouge, EF-Oatly-Cannondale were leading the peloton, with Ceratizit-WNT taking over after that.

SD Worx-Protime were positioned well just behind and to the left, and Cecchini’s acceleration brought Guarischi and Kopecky to the front into the final corner. Guarischi’s lead-out saw a gap open behind Kopecky, who won the sprint by several bike lengths.

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