Giro d’Italia Women Preview: Can Anna van der Breggen roll back the years?

The last time Anna van der Breggen rode the Giro d’Italia Women, she won it. Conclusively.

A long solo effort to the ski resort at Preto Nevoso elevated her to the race lead on day two, and she cemented her overall lead two days later with a brutally dominant mountain time trial. It was her fourth win at what was then the most prestigious race on the women’s calendar. 

This season, after three years directing her SD Worx-Protime squad from the team car, Van der Breggen is back. But can one of the icons of the sport recreate the dominance she had all those years ago? After all, women’s cycling has changed.

In 2021, not only did she win a fourth Giro, but also Omloop het Nieuwsblad, a seventh Flèche Wallonne, and the overall at Vuelta Burgos too, all wearing the rainbow jersey as road and time trial World Champion. Back then, the Giro was fading, and a new organiser was in the process of taking over from one which had allowed the race to stagnate. Now both are gone, organisers of the men’s event, RCS, now hold sway, cutting the race from 10 to eight days, improving its visibility and next moving it from the shadow of the men’s Tour de France for next year.

The biggest change for the women’s sport is the introduction of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, its presence ensuring the Giro will never again be the pinnacle it was when Van der Breggen won her four titles.

If the sporting landscape has changed, so have her competitors. Between 2017 and 2021, Van der Breggen shared the maglia rosa with compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten, but in Italy this month, the challenge will be from riders who were not the competitors they have since become.

In 2021, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) was anonymous, a journeywoman in the shadow of more accomplished riders. Last year, though, she was fourth overall at the Giro before taking a brilliant third place at the Tour de France. Lidl-Trek’s Gaia Realini was a surprise presence in the disintegrating group chasing Van der Breggen to Prato Nevoso, but nowhere near a WorldTour team. This year, she'll be up there, despite the diminutive Italian suffering a difficult year so far.

Four years ago, Marta Cavalli (Picnic-PostNL) was yet to win a race above .2 level, and her gritty, intelligent second place at the Giro was still 12 months away, as was the Tour de France crash which has all but scuppered her career. Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) wasn’t even riding at UCI level, and recently crowned German time trial champion, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto) was a Junior.

All these women, and more, will have an impact on the general classification this year, but the biggest players are defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Van der Breggen.

While Reusser is the best against the clock, all three women are excellent time trialists, so time gaps after day one’s 14.2km opener are likely to be insignificant, and we can look to the mountains for the decisive moves.

When Van der Breggen last competed, Longo Borghini only managed 14th overall, but has since matured tactically, regularly converting her ever-present aggression into success. This year alone, the 33-year-old has won the UAE Tour, Dwars Door Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl, while only last week she was imperious, winning the Italian nationals in searing heat on a tough, hilly course. Last year’s Giro win was both patient and aggressive, and repeating the obvious joy of that 2024 home win is sure to spur her on this time round.

Comparisons with Van der Breggen this year are difficult, though; they’ve not yet ridden a stage race together, and their one-day battles give little clue of their comparative form, though all available evidence would suggest the Italian will come out on top.

When Van der Breggen retired in 2021, Reusser’s success was limited mainly to Swiss and European championships, mostly against the clock, where she continues to excel. The Dutch woman was in the team car when Reusser scored SD Worx’s only success at the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and over the ensuing seasons, the Swiss woman developed into a fearsome competitor and a devastating climber. Look no further than the final stage of the Tour de Suisse, when she rode Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) off her wheel, for evidence of her ascending abilities. 

Reusser certainly has the upper hand in the pair’s head-to-head clashes, beating the Dutch woman in all four mountain clashes so far this year. Three of those were at the Vuelta España Femenina, where each time Reusser finished second behind Vollering, with Van der Breggen third.

But those days on the Spanish mountains told a more complex story than results alone. On each occasion, Van der Breggen led, setting the pace and only losing time when she was attacked. Were these training rides with eyes on the summer races in Italy and France? 

If results alone were your guide, third place is the most Van der Breggen could hope for. Second at Strade Bianche is her best result since returning, and, while others have been winning, she’s only raced the odd criterium since crashing out of Itzulia Women on May 17th. There have been other crashes this year too, something we did not see in the earlier part of her career.

However, like everything else in the sport, her preparation has changed, spending far longer at altitude than she used to, and she is, without doubt, a winner. She’s not come out of retirement to be an also-ran.

SD Worx-Protime say she has “cautious ambitions for the general classification.” She has a strong team in support, including last year’s second-placed Lotte Kopecky, the World Champion, ostensibly preparing for the Tour de France. As Van der Breggen has acknowledged herself, the sport has changed. But some things stay the same, and we may well see her in pink come Sunday the 13th.