Celia Gery takes first Grand Tour stage with thrilling finish

The 20-year-old emerged from a seven rider move to claim her first Grand Tour stage victory, having bridged across with Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) and Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) to Alison Jackson ((St Michel Preference Home Auber93)), Chantal Pegolo (Isolmant Premac Vittoria) and Gaia Segato (Vini Fantini BePink), who were part of the day’s breakaway.

Uno-X Mobility and Human Powered Health drove the pace in the finale and brought the gap down to just 10 seconds under the flamme rouge, but it was not enough for the peloton as the French rider outkicked Brand to take the stage.

The day began fairly uneventfully, with a breakaway able to escape up the road. Gaia Segato, Chantal Pegolo, Alison Jackson, Marjolein van ’t Geloof (Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi), Sara Luccon (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and . were part of the move, and the group worked well together, building a gap of more than seven minutes over the peloton.

With 53 kilometres to go, a mass crash occurred in the peloton, with Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), the maglia rosa, also involved in what was a heavy collision. Van der Breggen was soon back on her bike and had to make up 1:30 to safely rejoin the peloton, which she managed a few kilometres later.

There was some climbing to contend with in the final third of stage 7, with the Pietragavina, 9 kilometres at 2.93%, coming before the finale. The peloton lifted the pace on the climb, bringing the breakaway’s advantage down to just 40 seconds.

After summiting the climb, the five remained ahead, with the peloton trying to close in behind ahead of what looked set to be a bunch sprint. That meant Lidl Trek controlled proceedings as Elisa Balsamo attempted to claim a fifth victory at the 2026 Giro.

Intriguingly, Géry, Persico, Brand and Elisa Longo Borghini bridged across to the breakaway on a descent and opened a 30 second gap over the peloton. The move never completely fell apart, although the advantage was down to just 17 seconds inside the final 3 kilometres.

With under 2 kilometres to go, Jackson and Longo Borghini were driving the pace in the front group, while Uno X Mobility and Human Powered Health tried to claw back the escapees. It remained close under the flamme rouge, with the stage finely poised.

Brand was the first to launch her sprint, but she was overpowered on the run to the line by Géry, who took her first Grand Tour stage victory.