Giro Rosa: Van Vleuten dominates to win on Monte Zoncolan

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Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) showed she is the strongest rider of this Giro Rosa by far, winning stage 9 that finished atop the Monte Zoncolan. She was the only rider who could follow Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) when the South African attacked halfway up the 11-kilometre climb. Van Vleuten then launched her own attacked two kilometres from the line to take a memorable solo victory.

Moolman-Pasio finished second, Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) out-sprinted Eider Merino (Movistar Team) for third. With her victory, van Vleuten defended the maglia rosa and holds a virtually insurmountable lead ahead of the final stage on Sunday.

How it happened

The penultimate stage of this Giro d'Italia Femminile has been widely anticipated ever since it was announced last autumn. Covering 104.7 kilometres from Tricesimo to the top of the Monte Zoncolan, this was the decisive stage of the race. The first 94 km were not completely flat, but apart from a category 3 climb to Interneppo, it was a very gentle, false-flat uphill to Ovaro where the climb to the top of the Zoncolan started. The Giro Rosa finished there in 1997, 21 years ago, but used the easier side from Sutrio that time, so this was a début for the women's peloton on a climb that has become legendary in the men's Giro d'Italia.

After a 28-kilometre starting circuit around Tricesimo and Buja, three riders formed a breakaway after 40 km of racing. Silvia Valsecchi (BePink), Olena Pavlukhina (BTC City Ljubljana), and Sara Penton (Team Virtu Cycling) built a lead of up to 2:55 minutes and kept going even when a heavy rain shower came down on the riders. They were caught with 14 km to go when the teams of the general classification favourites organised themselves before the start of the climb.

The steep gradients with an average 12 per cent, maxing out at a whole 22 per cent, gradually whittled down the peloton to less than twenty kilometres, but there were no outright attacks on the first kilometres. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio accelerated with 5.5 kilometres to go, and only overall leader Annemiek van Vleuten could stay in the wheel of the South African climber.

A quartet including Megan Guarnier (Boels Dolmans), Ane Santesteban (Alé Cipollini), Margarita Victoria García, and Eider Merino (both Movistar Team) tried to close the gap, but the chasing effort made the group disintegrate eventually as every rider went up the climb at her own pace. Amanda Spratt and Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) could not follow the accelerations at first but came back from behind the further the climb went on.

Spratt joined Merino, and the two rode to the finish together but had no chance of catching Moolman-Pasio and van Vleuten who were 38 seconds ahead at the five-kilometre mark. Merino dropped Spratt for a while and was in third position on the road solo, but Spratt came back again with 2.5 km to go.

Van Vleuten and Moolman-Pasio had a lead of almost two minutes on Merino and Spratt when van Vleuten decided to leave it all on the road with 2.8 km to go. The Dutchwoman stood up for a few pedal strokes, increased her speed, going past Moolman-Pasio and leaving the South African behind. The gap was only a few metres at first, yet slowly but steadily grew bigger as van Vleuten rode marginally faster. On the last two kilometres, the maglia rosa put 40 seconds into her closest rival and could celebrate a prestigious stage win at 1730 metres of altitude. Spratt outsprinted Merino for third place almost three minutes behind.

With her second stage win of the race, van Vleuten also increased her advantage in the general classification where she is now 3:35 minutes up on Moolman-Pasio and 5:53 minutes ahead of her teammate Spratt with only one stage to go. Van Vleuten also takes over the lead in the points classification. Sofia Bertizzolo (Astana Women's Team) continues to wear the white jersey for the best U23 rider, and Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) is in the blue jersey for the best-placed Italian.

The Giro Rosa finishes tomorrow with a 120.3-kilometre stage around the beautiful city of Cividale del Friuli. The stage includes a category 1 climb in the final 20 kilometres, so while the overall podium looks settled, there will still be a big battle for the final stage win.

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