Giro Rosa: Annemiek van Vleuten wins queen stage on Passo Fraele

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) was unstoppable on the queen stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile. The defending champion attacked at the bottom of the finishing climb up the Passo Fraele to the Lago di Cancano and won the stage almost three minutes ahead of the next group.

"I know this area very well and love to come here," said Van Vleuten after the stage. "The hotel where I stay is only ten kilometres from here. I know the roads here very well and knew I had to attack from the bottom to gain as much time as possible. But it was ten kilometres of epic suffering."

With this gap, Van Vleuten also takes the maglia rosa for the overall lead.

"I'm really proud to wear it. It's my dream to wear pink, and the Giro is a very big goal for me this year. It was a bit of a waiting game until now, and I am very happy that I could finally use my legs and attack."

How it happened

Stage 5 of the Giro Rosa was supposed to be the queen stage of the race with a summit finish on the Passo di Gavia, but landslides made the road unpassable and forced a re-routing. Instead, the stage finished at the dammed Lago di Cancano atop the Passo Torri di Fraele, a scenic climb with multiple switchbacks overlooking the Valdidentro.

Starting in Ponte in Valtellina, the route immediately went up the category-two climb of Corona. First attacks by Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels Dolmans), Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv), Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv), and overnight leader Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) were quickly reeled in by the peloton led by Mitchelton-Scott.

Elena Pirrone (Valcar Cylance) got away and established a 40-second advantage as the peloton fractured on the climb. But the Italian was caught again, and Van Vleuten crested the top of the Corona climb at the head of a lead group of 26 riders.

Nikola Nosková (Bigla) attacked from this group as the race reached the bottom of the Valtellina valley and gradually established a gap of up to 2:20 minutes while riders came back to the group from behind, creating a peloton of about 50 riders.

Continuing up the valley towards Bormio, Rooijakkers and Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) went after Nosková, and the Czech waited for the duo to bridge to her. Together, they held an advantage of over two minutes with 20km to go, but this was reduced to only 40 seconds at the start of the unclassified climb to Le Motte that led into the finishing climb.

Nosková could not keep up with Rooijakkers and Kirchmann on this climb, leaving two riders at the front who could briefly extend their lead again on a short downhill. But their escape was over when the Fraele climb started with 10km to go as Van Vleuten immediately attacked from the peloton, bridging the gap and leaving Kirchmann behind.

Van Vleuten powered up the numerous switchbacks of the 7.3-kilometre, 8.3 per cent climb, increasing her advantage ever further. At the five-kilometre mark, she was 2:20 minutes ahead of a chase group of 11 riders, and this increased further to 2:50 minutes at the top of the climb where a mostly flat 1.5-kilometre gravel section started.

Erica Magnaldi (WNT-Rotor) attacked with 3km to go, breaking up the chase group. However, things came back together on the final kilometres, and Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) won the group sprint for second place ahead of Niewiadoma. Van Vleuten had finished 2:57 minutes earlier.

Contrary to previous information, the finish was counted as a first category climb, meaning that Van Vleuten also took the lead in the points and mountain classifications. As she will be wearing the maglia rosa herself, the points jersey stays on the shoulders of Vos while Brand will wear the mountain jersey on stage 6 in Van Vleuten's stead. Juliette Labous (Team Sunweb) continues to wear the white U23 jersey, Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) remains the best Italian.

The Giro Rosa continues on Wednesday with a climbing individual time trial over 12.1km from Chiuro to Teglio.

More to follow ...

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