'Sometimes you have to dare' - Longo Borghini takes Giro d'Italia Women lead while Gigante wins queen stage

Sarah Gigante stamped her name on the Giro d’Italia, winning a second mountain top stage and moving up the general classification. The AG Insurance-Soudal rider caught Elisa Longo Borghini three kilometres from the top of Monte Neroni after the Italian launched an audacious attack at the bottom of the climb.

The Australian dropped Longo Borghini around two kilometres out, soloing to a remarkable stage win and moving up to third overall.

Longo Borghini’s move had seemed foolhardy at the bottom of the climb, but having started the day only 16 seconds behind overall leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar), she gritted her teeth and maintained a 30 second advantage over the Swiss, taking the maglia rosa with one stage remaining.

Longo Borghini’s attack came off the previous descent, she and team mate Silvia Persico getting a gap and deciding to continue onto the 14km final climb. Persico rode herself almost to a standstill on the climb and when she pulled off Longo Borghini attacked, immediately dropping Reusser’s team mate, Liane Lippert.

Gigante attacked when Reusser’s last team mate dropped from the chase, quickly building a lead and catching the Italian with three kilometres to go.

We had no pressure coming in really after having a great week, stage four making it so good but today was so special , everyone gave 100% and I’m really just so happy and thankful to my team mates.

“We had no pressure coming in after having a great week, stage four making it so good but today was so special,” gigante said. “Everyone gave 100% and I’m really just so happy and thankful to my team mates.

“I knew I felt really good, I saw on my Garmin there was a little flat section and then it went steep again and I knew she was pretty tired after being out there a while, I felt good so I went for it, although I was dying a thousand deaths in the last kilometre because it was so steep."

For Longo Borghini the day was overwhelming, the Italian sobbing after the race. She then revealed her attack had been more accidental than planned.

"Silvia [Persico] and I just wanted to have control in the downhill and apparently we went a bit too fast, so we had a small gap. I was telling Silvia 'ride it and we see what the peloton has to do,' if we start with one foot in front it’s always better.

"So we took the climb with 20 seconds, I saw that it was going up and up and up so I just did my pace , maybe I over did it at the beginning and I paid it back in the last two or three kms, but sometimes you just have to dare."

HOW IT HAPPENED

The queen stage was almost certainly where the race would be decided, the peloton taking on 150km between Fermignano and Monte Nerone. With 3,850m of climbing it was set to be a beast of a day, with three opening classified climbs as the route looped round the base of the final, first category ascent.

At 14.8km at an average gradient of 6.7% that final ascent was sure to decide, or maybe consolidate the general classification. That was if the whole peloton reached the bottom as one.

It was an active start, with a number of riders attempting to go clear right from the gun, but with 15km done Mijntje Geurts (Visma-Lease a Bike) managed to get clear, soon building a gap of more than a minute. That lead soon extended to more than three minutes, as the race began tackling the day’s early climbs.

On the second ascent of the day Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) attacked, heading up the road in search of mountains points, while she was followed by Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) on the move for the second successive day.

Geurts was caught on the day’s penultimate climb, La Forchetta, some 56km from the finish, with Ostolaza taking maximum points and moving into the virtual mountains classification lead. Van Anrooij had begun the day 11th overall, 4.01 down, so, with the peloton almost six minutes down, the Dutch woman became virtual race leader.

With the descent done Anna van der Breggen’s SD Worx-Protime team came to the front of the peloton, and the gap began to drop. On an unclassified climb 30km from the line, the AG Insurance-Soudal team of Sarah Gigante, who won the stage four mountain top finish, came to the front of the peloton, not only closing the gap to the leaders, but dropping many in the bunch.

While their move put their rider in a better pace to repeat the stage four heroics, it was also the perfect defensive move for the Australian, who has struggled on descents.

Descending was not a problem for Van Anrooij, who managed to sneak away from her co-escapees, while in the bunch Elisa Longo Borghini, who started the day only 16 seconds behind the overall lead, led her UAE Team ADQ team mate, Silvia Persico off the front, putting both Gigante and maglia rosa, Marlen Reusser (Movistar) on the back foot.

At the bottom of the Monte Nerone Van Anrooij continued to lead by 3.21, while Longo Borghini had around 30 seconds on Reusser’s peloton. Oddly though, it was not Reusser’s Movistar who chased, but AG Insurance instead. The UAE duo did have an anchor in the form of Reusser’s team mate, Liane Lippert, but the German was dropped when Longo Borghini attacked, Persico having finished her effort.

The stage entered its final nine kilometres with Anrooij leading Longo Borghini by 1.31 and the Italian leading Reusser by almost 50 seconds, tipping the race on its head. With six kilometres left Longo Borghini was closing on the race leader, but her advantage over Reusser remained the same though the Swiss rider had run out of team mates. Pressure piled on the Movistar rider when Gigante made her own bid for glory, but she still chose not to chase, other GC hopefuls doing the work for her.

Van Anrooij was passed by the Italian with around four kilometres to go and shortly afterwards Gigante did the same, catching Longo Borghini with three kilometres to go, on the climb’s steepest slopes, the Australian sitting on the wheel until 2.2km to go, just as Reusser came to the front of the chase for the first time

Sunday’s final stage sees the the race back on the lumpy stuff for the final stage between Forlì and Imola, where they’ll tackle three laps of a lumpy circuit before finishing on the famous race track where Anna van der Breggen won both road and time trial world titles in 2020.

RESULTS

GIRO D’ITALIA WOMEN, STAGE 7, FERMIGNANO > MONTE NERONE (150KM)

1. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal, in 4:44:14
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, +45s
3. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl-Trek, +1:14
4. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, +1:17
5. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto, at same time
6. Barbara Malcotti (Ita) Human Powered Health, +1:21
7. Urška Žigart (Slo) AG Insurance-Soudal, +1:37
8. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +1:48
9. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-SUEZ, +2:17
10. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +2:48

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 7

1. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, in 20:56:48
2. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, +22s
3. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal, +1:11
4. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +2:55
5. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto, +3:07
6. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +3:46
7. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl-Trek, +3:54
8. Urška Žigart (Slo) AG Insurance-Soudal, +4:32
9. Barbara Malcotti (Ita) Human Powered Health, +4:44
10. Katrine Aalerud (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +5:01