Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) took complete control of the Giro d’Italia Donne on Friday, winning her second stage of the 2022 edition and extending her overall lead to more than two minutes.
On the 104.7-kilometre stage from Rovereto to Aldeno, which featured two long climbs, Van Vleuten attacked early on the 9.3-kilometre ascent to Lago di Cei, and again only Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) could follow.
Van Vleuten soon dropped both and bridged to solo escapee Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), who had attacked earlier on the Passo Bordala.
Cavalli dropped García soon afterwards and kept the gap to Van Vleuten small for most of the climb, passing Faulkner 4km from the top of the climb when the latter couldn’t follow the GC leader anymore.
Van Vleuten went into the final descent 37 seconds ahead of Cavalli and increased her lead further. She overshot a corner with 5km to go but was quickly back on her bike and could celebrate the stage victory, finishing 59 seconds ahead of Cavalli.
Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), who had caught Faulkner on the descent, finished third.
In the overall standings, Cavalli leapfrogged Garcia into second place, but she’s now 2:13 off the lead of Van Vleuten, who’s in the driving seat to seal the title on Sunday.
More to come…
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