Juliette Labous (Team DSM) won stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia Donne, a summit finish on the Passo Maniva.
The French climber, who lost 11 minutes on stage 4, joined the breakaway of the day and rode all her companions off her wheel on the hard finishing climb.
Labous increased her advantage over the favourites’ group to over two minutes and rode within her means, eventually winning the stage by 1:37 minutes.
The favourites’ group was whittled down as rider after rider couldn’t follow the pace, but none of the attacks really stuck, and six riders were still together in the final kilometre when race leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) launched her final attack.
Only Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) and Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) tried to follow the maglia rosa, but Van Vleuten shook them both off and crossed the finish line in second place, taking a few seconds on her competitors.
“I was a bit scared because the gap was going down really fast, so I had to go full from the bottom. I saw that I was the strongest, so I just decided to take my own pace and to just go as hard as I could,” said Labous.
“I am so happy with this win and will enjoy it. Tomorrow I will maybe be a bit tired from today, but I will try to go for another stage win.”
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