Lippert takes a second Giro d'Italia stage win, while Longo Borghini secures the GC

Liane Lippert (Movistar) won the final stage of the Giro d’Italia Women, winning a sprint a deux from Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) after the pair escaped in the closing two kilometres.

Marlen Reusser was third on the stage, picking up four bonus seconds, but it was not enough, and she finished second behind a jubilant Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), the Italian winning a second successive Giro.

Longo Borghini knew the lead she built on stage seven should be enough to take the GC, and stuck to Reusser’s wheel throughout the stage, never allowing the Swiss rider any more than a few metres. 

Van der Breggen was particularly active on the descent, trying to escape on more than one occasion, hoping to win on the same course as her 2020 World Championships victory. However, she was unable to shake the German rider, who sat on, winning the sprint to take her second stage win in three days.

“Marlen and me, without talking, we knew that if Anna goes, we have to be there, so she followed, then I followed, and in the end, I was with Anna and perfect situation for me,” Lippert said. “Super happy with winning two stages here, unfortunately we lost the maglia rosa, but we kept on fighting. Marlen was riding for me, and I had the confidence to finish it off.”

Longo Borghini’s win comes off the back of her incredible solo ride on Monte Neroni on stage seven. There, she overcame a 16-second deficit to Reusser, taking the maglia rosa from the Swiss rider. 

Finishing Sunday’s stage on Reusser’s wheel, Longo Borghini punched the air in triumph, coming to a halt instantly surrounded by children. She peeled off her pink mitts, handed them to an elated girl, before heading to the post-race interview.

“Today I was very focused on Marlen,” she said. “I thought she would attack on the last climb but when I saw that she was not moving, I thought she would maybe give the chance to Liane. For me, it was not a threat, and when I saw Anna van der Breggen moving together with Liane, I was like chilling a bit, because it was really stressful the whole day, we were super ready to go and super ready to react to any attacks.

“It’s been an incredible journey together with my team, UAE Team ADQ. It’s been eight days completely full gas, we believed even single day, and we stayed humble, and we went very bold yesterday, and we got home this victory.

“That is the result of days and days of training together, and building up a team towards this goal, and I cannot be anymore thankful to my team mates.”

The eighth and final stage of the Giro d’Italia women was another gnarly one, with another 2,200m of climbing across the 134km stage between Forlì and Imola. The opening part of the day was fairly straightforward, with one third category climb, but the closing circuit was set to be a challenging one.

After 35km, the race joined a circuit where they did three laps of the same 28.2km lap raced at the 2020 World Championships, including the fourth category Mazzolano climb and the third category Cima Gallisterna climbs. In 2020, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) backed up her win at that year’s Giro with a rainbow victory on this circuit, and the Dutch woman will have started Sunday’s stage hoping to salvage her race with similar success.

After winning stage seven on Saturday, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) started the day with intent, winning maximum points on the opening climb, reclaiming the virtual mountains classification from Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), who started the day in the maglia azzura.

In an attempt to secure the points classification, Lorena Wiebes won the intermediate sprint some 35km into the race and entered the closing laps by forming a breakaway. With Léa Curinier (FDJ-SUEZ) and Sara Casasola (Fenix-Deceuninck) for company, the trio built a lead of 1.09 as they crested the Mazzolano climb for the first of three times.

With 60km and two laps remaining, the leaders were joined by Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) and Wiebes’s teammate Mikayla Harvey, SD Worx perhaps hatching a tactical plot for later in the day. But behind Movistar were setting the pace, with a view to Marlen Reusser attacking to reclaim her 22-second deficit on the general classification.

However, the peace then settled, the peloton holding the breakaway just under a minute up the road, various teams coming through to take care of the pacing duties. However, inside the final 40km, on the penultimate ascent of the Cima Gallisterna, the pace began to lift and the leader’s advantage was all but extinguished by a reduced peloton, Wiebes being caught before the top.

What remained of the break took the slimmest of margins over the top of the climb, a much-reduced peloton following them onto the descent, and the attacks started soon after. First, Lore De Schepper (AG Insurance-Soudal) attacked with Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) following, though the duo were unable to catch the leaders before being brought back by the GC group.

At the front of the race, while Gigante tried to make the pace on the long descent, the leaders’ advantage began to increase once again, and they crossed the line with 28.2km to go with a lead of 40 seconds.

On the final Mazzolano climb, the lead began to tumble, but Curinier took matters into her own hands, attacking while the peloton was within touching distance behind. Both Harvey and Spratt found their way to the French rider’s wheel, while behind Longo Borghini sat on Reusser’s wheel at the back of the Movistar train.

While Spratt was dropped from the leaders, they were joined by Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) took her place, adding impetus into the breakaway, who led the peloton by 30 seconds with just over 12km to go, at the bottom of the Cima Gallisterna, with Lieke Nooijen (Visma | Lease a Bike) in the gap.

Nooijen was caught on the steepest slopes of the final climb as AG Insurance upped the pace. Smulders was soon the only one at the front, Curinier slipping into the peloton’s clutches first, before Harvey was also swallowed up. Smulders led over the top of the climb, but the chase remained hugely active, a number of different riders protecting or chasing a number of different agendas in the GC.

Six kilometres from the finish, Reusser came to the front of that group in an attempt to put Longo Borghini under pressure and catch Smulders. There was no shaking the maglia rosa, though, Longo Borghini ruled to the Movistar rider’s wheel.

Van der Breggen made the first of two bids for glory four kilometres from the line, going again just after she was caught, leading onto the race circuit, but Liane Lippert (Movistar) stuck to her wheel as the pair got a gap inside the final two kilometres.