On stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia Women, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) took the race lead with an audacious attack to the summit finish of Monte Nerone.
45 seconds up the road, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) took her second mountain stage of the race in the blue jersey, vaulting herself onto the podium.
Longo Borghini was the big winner of the day, however, attacking with her teammate Silvia Persico from the peloton on a descent with 22km to go. She now leads the race by 22 seconds from Marlen Reusser (Movistar).
Liane Lippert (Movistar) tagged along with the decisive move of the day, while Persico gave it all to set up Longo Borghini for the 14.8km finishing climb that they started 30 seconds ahead of the peloton.
While Longo Borghini passed earlier attacker Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) just inside the 5km mark, Gigante had attacked from the group of favourites 6km from the finish and reached Longo Borghini 3km from the line.
With 2.5km to go, Gigante left Longo Borghini behind to go for a solo stage victory, and while the Italian champion lost 45 seconds to the stage winner in the end, she crossed the line 32 seconds ahead of fourth-placed Reusser.
Adding the time bonus for second place, Longo Borghini has leapfrogged Reusser in GC to take the overall lead, while Gigante moved back onto the GC podium, 1:11 behind Longo Borghini.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) finished second on stage 7 and used the time to move into race lead (Image credit: Getty Images)
"I just feel so grateful to my team, we did the whole race so well together. I knew the whole team was 100% committed to the plan, and that was to get a spot on the podium in the GC. And then the stage win is just an extra bonus. We had no pressure coming into today after already having a great week, but today was special, and I'm really just so happy," said Gigante after the race.
"I saw on my Garmin that there was a little flat section and then it went steep again, and I knew she was pretty tired after being out there a while. I felt good, so I went for it. But I was dying a thousand deaths in the last kilometre because it was so steep," Gigante described her stage-winning attack in the final.
With her stage victory, Gigante also moved back onto the GC podium, 1:11 behind Longo Borghini.
"Obviously, it will be hard to defend that tomorrow, but we'll try. I was nineteenth in the Vuelta and seventh in the Tour last year, so if I can come home with third place this week, then I'd be very happy," finished Gigante.
2024 race champion Elisa Longo Borghini competes in the chase group (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The 150km penultimate stage of the race included three classified climbs and several uncategorised ascents ahead of the first-category finishing climb up the Monte Nerone. Mintje Geurts (Visma-Lease a Bike) went on a solo breakaway, and her advantage over the peloton increased continually until she was more than six minutes ahead.
Geurts was first over the Moria climb and the Passo La Croce, but on the climb of La Forchetta, the chasing duo of Van Anrooij and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) caught up with her while Célia Gery (FDJ-Suez) was on a fruitless chase in between the front group and the peloton.
Ostoloza took maximum points at the top of La Forchetta, and this was enough to take the blue mountain jersey off Gigante's shoulders even with the latter's stage victory. The two riders enter the final stage separated by only one mountain point.
Van Anrooij dropped Ostolaza and Geurts in a descent with 28.7km to go to continue solo, and she was three minutes ahead when Gery was reeled in 25km from the finish. On another descent, Persico and Longo Borghini went to the front and got a gap with Lippert on their wheels. They pushed on and extended their advantage over the peloton to 30 seconds at the start of the 14.8km finishing climb while Van Anrooij was still 2:40 minutes ahead of Longo Borghini.
When Persico had emptied herself and swung off with about 11km to go, Longo Borghini continued and quickly dropped Lippert, who waited for the peloton in order to support the chase.
Sara Martín working for Marlen Reusser in the chase (Image credit: Getty Images)
Movistar lined up Sara Martín, Lippert, and Mareille Meijering at the front of the group in an effort to reduce the gap to Longo Borghini, but at the 10km mark, the Italian champion had increased her advantage to 41 seconds and was also closing in on Van Anrooij.
Van Anrooij continued to lose ground and was only 1:12 minutes ahead of Longo Borghini with 7.5km to go, but the gap between Longo Borghini and the peloton, now reduced to only 12 riders and with Meijering doing one last pull for Reusser, remained stable around 40 seconds.
Gigante's attack 6km from the finish split the peloton into several groups, but nobody could follow the Australian climber. Longo Borghini finally passed Van Anrooij with 4.8km to go, but 3.1km from the line, Gigante caught up to her.
The chase group of Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health), white jersey Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto), Holmgren, Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal), and Reusser was 46 seconds behind at the 3km mark.
After a brief respite in Longo Borghini's wheel, Gigante put in her stage-winning attack. Reusser led the chase group on the final kilometre in an attempt to salvage her GC lead, and while she did reduce the gap to Longo Borghini, the Swiss allrounder dropped to second overall, entering the final stage with a 22-second deficit.
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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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