ANTONIA STORMS TO 2ND ON GC AFTER FINAL-STAGE RAID AT GIRO D’ITALIA

Antonia Niedermaier arrived at the 2026 Giro d’Italia Women with a clear but realistic target. She wanted to “somehow” crack the top five of the general classification (GC), while admitting that she would be “super, super happy with a podium.”

Nine days of racing across northern Italy later, the 23-year-old German more than delivered on that ambition, securing second place on GC after a gutsy and aggressive final stage in which she threw everything at her rivals and ultimately displaced the maglia rosa wearer.

While the GC result was the primary objective, Antonia also added a third third-place finish to her tally in this year’s Giro, once again sprinting to the line from an elite quartet. Italian cycling icon Elisa Longo Borghini (UAD) took a fitting stage victory, ahead of Niamh Fisher-Black (LTK). Demi Vollering (TFS) finished behind Antonia with arms jubilantly aloft, having done more than enough to claim the maglia rosa on the ninth and final day.

A typically composed Antonia was calm in manner, but clearly delighted with the outcome:

“I’m really happy with the result, especially after waiting so long for this podium. Four years ago, I crashed really hard in the Giro and since then, I’ve been trying hard to make it onto the podium. Finally this year, I was able to do it.”

As Antonia references, the Giro d’Italia Women has become a race of particular significance for her, contesting it now for four consecutive seasons. She announced herself in spectacular fashion in 2023 with a breakthrough stage victory on debut, before a heavy crash the following day ended her race prematurely. In 2024, she delivered consistent performances to finish 6th on GC and 2nd in the youth classification, often in support of eventual podium finisher Neve Bradbury. In 2025, she claimed the youth classification title and moved up to 5th on GC. Now, in 2026, she has taken another huge leap upwards, finally landing on the overall podium.

Starting the day third overall – a GC position she would have happily taken – Antonia trailed race leader Anna van der Breggen (SDW) by 1:20 and Vollering by 30 seconds. A near-perfect performance was required to move up any further, but she wasn’t content to simply defend third.

The first decisive moment in Antonia’s GC raid came on the Montoso climb (9km at 9.6%), where attacks from Vollering reduced the lead group to just 10 riders. Along the valley roads that followed, around 65km into the stage, Antonia seized her opportunity:

“After the descent, we were standing still so I tried an attack, and somehow ended up alone. Elisa joined with Niamh, and we went for quite a long time with just the three of us, before Demi joined.”

With 73km still to race, Antonia had set up a textbook GC ambush and was out front as the virtual race leader for quite some time, although it was an accolade she was careful not to dwell on.

“I must say, I was not thinking too much about being in virtual pink. I was only thinking about doing the best that I could in the moment. I was just happy to be in the breakaway, and really happy to be trying something.”

Behind her, van der Breggen and Vollering found themselves more than two minutes adrift at times. Locked in a tense tactical duel, the gap fluctuated between 1:20 and 2:00 as the race headed into the final 40km.

“It was a great scenario for us,” Antonia explained. “We wanted to play a little bit with van der Breggen, and I also knew that FDJ were willing to let me go on the attack. It was a situation we could have expected, but when you’re there, it’s always like: ‘oh, I’m actually in a breakaway’.”

With 38km remaining on the final categorised climb, Vollering made yet another move and was able to distance van der Breggen for the first time in nine stages, rapidly eating into Antonia’s advantage.

Just 10km later, she joined the leading trio, and the four riders worked cohesively on the flat run-in to the final finish line of this year’s Giro. The gap to van der Breggen continued to grow, and by the finish Antonia had remarkably secured second on GC, 1:07 ahead of the highly-decorated Dutch rider.

Reflecting on an incredible stage and an amazing Tour as a whole, Antonia concluded:

“I knew Elisa would win the stage because she was incredibly strong today and really deserved it. Overall, I think we raced really well today. It was a great Giro.”