Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) won the final mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia Donne, 112.8 km over three hard climbs and with an uphill finish. The Alaskan-born 29-year-old went on the attack with Italian climber Gaia Realini (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria) on the Fai della Paganella, the first climb of the day.
Faulkner picked up mountain points throughout the day to take the lead in the mountain classification and left Realini behind 1.5 km from the top of the steep Passo Daone, the last classified climb of the day. In the group of favourites, Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) had attacked, and only maglia rosa Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) could follow her.
Cavalli left Van Vleuten behind on the descent but waited for her afterwards, and a group of four formed in the last 15 km as Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) had come back and the three picked up Realini. 3:21 minutes behind third-placed Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) before the stage, Longo Borghini was driving the group to take as much time on García as possible.
Faulkner continued on her own and defended her lead, winning the stage 59 seconds ahead of Cavalli who had attacked in the downhill before the finishing climb. Longo Borghini and Van Vleuten finished 1:13 minutes behind Faulkner, with Realini at 1:44 minutes.
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