Demi Vollering won a drastically shortened queen stage of the Giro d’Italia Women but failed to take the pink jersey from rival Anna van der Breggen.
The FDJ United-Suez leader was able to out-sprint the three other riders that make up the GC top four at the top of the Collle delle Finestre on stage 8.
SD Worx-Protime leader van der Breggen is now well placed to claim her fifth Giro win on tomorrow’s final stage.
That is despite her lead being cut from one minute to 50 seconds due to the bonus seconds Vollering earned at the finish.
The stage had to be shortened due to an unstable sheet of ice that threatened to fall onto the road at the top of the Colle delle Finestre. The descent off the back of the Finestre was dropped along with the final climb to Sestriere and instead the race finished 1km from the top of the Cima Coppi climb.
The decision wasn’t made until the riders were already over half-way up the Finestre and riding on the climb’s iconic gravel.
Speaking in Sestriere after the finish, Paolo Bellino, CEO of race organiser RCS Sport, said: “We took the decision because it was too risky. They told us there was a danger of an avalanche.”
He added: “It’s so unfortunate because we worked a lot for this stage to be a nice stage and it was going very well. But because over the last three hours the temperatures were higher [than expected] so we had to clear the roads as this was very dangerous, in the end the most important thing is the safety of the riders.”
It was Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) that was closest to matching Vollering in the sprint, perhaps a function of her mountain biking experience making her good at sprinting on the lose gravel. She remains fourth on GC.
Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) was next to cross the makeshift finish line of a rope across the road with van der Breggen in her wheel.
Vollering, who came into the race targeting the pink jersey now has just Sunday’s stage, which includes just three categorised climbs and none within 25km of the finish in Saluzzo, to overhaul van der Breggen.
The race had been splintered even before it hit the 9km gravel section of the Finestre with just a select group of GC contenders left at the front of the race.
The pressing of FDJ United-Suez had done most of the work and riders continued to fall out the back of the group as the climb progressed.
Perhaps the biggest winner on GC was Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) who climbed two places to sixth on GC.
Her success came at the expense of two-time Giro winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) who were the big losers of the top ten riders dropping to seventh and eight respectively.
While Urška Žigart and Lore de Schepper both of AG Insurance-Soudal both climbed a place to put themselves ninth and tenth.
Result
Giro d’Italia Women stage eight: Rivoli > Colle delle Finestre, 74km
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United–Suez, in 2:28.46
2. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl-Trek
3. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
4. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx–Protime, all at same time
5. Femke de Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +55s
6. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, +57s
7. Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez), +1.10
8. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE ADQ, +1.39
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, +1.46
10. Valentina Cavallar (Aut) SD Worx-Protime, +2.18
General Classification after stage eight
1. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx–Protime, in 26:09.22
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United–Suez, +50s
3. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, +1.20
4. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl-Trek, +1.55
5. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, +3.00
6. Femke de Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +3.33
7. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE ADQ, +3.46
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, +4.19
9. Urška Žigart (Slo) AG Insurance-Soudal +5.51
10. Lore de Schepper (Bel) AG Insurance-Soudal, +5.59