Annemiek van Vleuten took a masterful win at the Giro Donne on Monday, moving into the overall lead with stage victory in Cesena.
The double GC winner had been part of a two woman group with Mavi García in the final 10km, but outwitted and out-dragged the UAE Team ADQ rider to take the win. After manoeuvring the Spanish rider onto the front as they entered the final kilometre she left her there, only coming through just ahead of the final, right hand corner, around 200m from the line her sprint enough to open a gap.
The pair had dropped the rest of the peloton on the second of three classified climbs, with only Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) able to go with them. Cavalli, sporting the triclore jersey cuffs of a former Italian champion, looked the strongest of the three, but on an unclassified climb around 12km out she popped.
Though she fought bravely the 24 year-old was unable to catch the leading pair and eventually finished third, 43 seconds down. With the next rider crossing the line nearly five minutes after Van Vleuten it seems the GC is decided with six stages remaining.
After the three previous stages Van Vleuten will take a lead of 25 seconds over García into the fifth stage. Starting in Carpi and covering 126.1km to Reggio Emilia it is the longest of the 10, though there is little to trouble the sprinters, so a bunch kick could be on the cards, though with such big gaps on GC it might be a day for the breakaway.
How it happened
For its return to the mainland, the fourth stage of the Giro Donne headed to one of Italian cycling’s heartlands. With flat lands and the edge of the Apennines, the Emilia Romanga region is one of the country’s best cycling regions.
And while Cesena, which hosted both the start and finish of the 120.9km stage, is famous for the Biblioteca Malastestiana opened in 1454 and is Europe’s oldest civic library, it is also famous for cycling. Bikes are everywhere and it’s not a stretch to imagine Marco Pantani clattering through the cobbled streets, Il Pirata having been born in the nearby costal town of Cesenatico.
On Monday a different generation rolled through the streets and north for a flat opening 35km. As it headed west and south the route became more challenging, the first of three classified climbs started with 35km done. A further uncategorised ascent of 2.8km and 7.1% average gradient topped out 10km from the and was an obvious staging post for the ambitious.
Even the breeze was hot when…