Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig wins Giro dell'Emilia Donne

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Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) took victory at the Giro dell'Emilia Donne, her first since moving to the French squad at the start of 2020.

The Dane beat 2018 winner Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia-Basso Bikes-Vaiano) and Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv) across the line atop the final climb of the San Luca in Bologna. 

"The team worked so f****** good and I'm looking forward to seeing it on the video because the lead-out into the climb was perfect," Uttrup Ludwig said. "The team worked so hard the whole day and kept me fresh so I only needed to push the pedals in the climb so that was pretty awesome.

"Taking the victory here and one of my favorite countries, in Italy, it's really good. I'm really happy to give this [win] to the team because they worked so hard, all the team worked so hard, the bike was good, massage was good, everything was good."

Following the thrilling re-start to the women's season with three one-day races in Spain followed by Strade Bianche, all won by road race world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott), the racing continued with the UCI 1.Pro-ranked Giro dell’ Emilia, a short and mainly flat 87.2km around Bologna with two intermediate sprints at 52km at San Matteo della Decima and 60km at Agricola Caretti, before finishing on the summit of the steep climb at San Luca. 

Six of the eight Women’s WorldTeams were on the start line in Bologna including Ale BTC Ljubljana, Trek-Segafredo, Sunweb, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, CCC-Liv and Canyon-SRAM. However, missing teams included Van Vleuten’s team Mitchelton-Scott and Movistar Team Women. Also missing from the start line were Equipe Paule Ka that were forced to withdraw from the race after their bikes were stolen from their hotel over the weekend.

The main field split in two at 44km into the race, roughly halfway, with 35 riders making up the front group with a small 25-second lead over the second group. The two groups came back together just ahead of the first intermediate sprint at San Matteo della Decima.

Much of the excitement was reserved for the hilltop finish and Laura Tomasi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and Sofia Colllinelli (Aromitalia-Basso Bikes-Vaiano) enlivened the earlier stages by forming the break of the day. Anastasya Kolesava (WCC Team) tried to bridge across to the leading pair but was caught out on her own at roughly 30 seconds behind the leaders and 30 seconds ahead of the main field. Adding the third rider to the mix might have strengthened the move and increased their chances of success, but Kolesava never connected with Collinelli and Tomasi.

The field ramped up its speeds in the approach to the final climb, and caught Collinelli and Tomasi, with six kilometres remaining in the race. A crash on the approach to the climb took out a number of riders in the peloton. 

Uttrup Ludwig made her move on the steep slopes of the San Luca climb, going on crossing the finish line alone and taking the race victory, with Leleivyte and Rooijakkers rounding out the podium.

Uttrup Ludwig confirmed her upcoming race schedule to include the Danish National Championships on August 23, WorldTour GP Plouay on August 25, European Championships road race on August 27 and La Course by Le Tour de France on August 29.