ANTONIA TAKES 5TH ON GIRO'S HARDEST STAGE, NOW 5TH ON GC

Antonia Niedermaier secured her second top-five stage finish of this year’s Giro d’Italia Women on the dramatic and enthralling seventh stage – the Queen stage.

“Today was not really the best ride of my life, I have to say. I was just happy when it was over, but I was fighting until the end and I don’t think I couldn’t have pushed any more. We shouldn’t be too sad or disappointed, because I still think it was a good day, and the team was super strong. They were supporting me in every situation and I’m really grateful for that. They were always bringing me back and helping me with the bike changes, so I was really happy to have this team around me.”

Owing to the arduous nature of the course – 145 kilometres with over 3600 metres of climbing – a significantly reduced peloton of around 30 riders arrived at the foot of the daunting Monte Nerone ascent to the finish (14.8km at 6.4%).

There had been talk of splits forming on the countless twisty, technical descents throughout the relentless route, but the race had unfolded in a relatively passive, pensive manner, with a handful of non-GC threats granted leeway up the road. Antonia was caught up in a crash but thankfully managed to remount and continue. 

“Actually, I don’t really know what happened – I think one girl somehow rode into my back wheel in the descent, or maybe I also just slipped away. It happened so fast but I went down quite slowly, so it wasn’t that bad. Afterwards though, I had to change my bike because I had a flat tire, so I went from crash, to bike change, to bike change again. I really had quite some chaos today.”

It was the very final section of descending in today’s stage, however, that delivered an unexpected plot twist. Longo Borghini and her UAE teammate Persico, along with Lippert (MOV), slipped away to establish a slender lead. Their advantage initially hovered precariously on the flat valley that followed, with Antonia and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig positioned near the front as Movistar, then AG Insurance-Soudal, worked to reel the trio back in.

As the climb began, easing in at around 5%, Longo Borghini and Persico had stretched their advantage to 25 seconds with 12km remaining. Movistar appeared out of resources, unable to close the gap, and dropped Lippert back in a bid to help.

Meanwhile, Van Anrooij (LTK) was still solo ahead, her advantage sitting at +2:30 mins. Heading into the final 9km, her lead began to shrink, while Longo Borghini’s grew. It was up to 50 secs on the main ever-shrinking group which included Reusser, stage four summit finish winner Gigante, and Antonia, tucked in comfortably around fifth wheel and never not on alert.

With 5.6km to go and Movistar spent, Gigante launched a move in pursuit of Longo Borghini. None of the key GC contenders including Reusser responded. The group was quickly whittled down to seven, with Aalerud (UXM) and van der Breggen (SDW), both ahead of Antonia on GC going into today, dropped.

Inside 4km to go, Antonia had Holmgreen (LTK) on her wheel – second in the U23 Maglia Bianca standings at +54 secs. As the finish drew closer, Antonia took to the front to set the pace. In the final kilometres, Reusser took over and mounted a last-ditch effort to salvage her GC ambitions, as the gradients developed to an unforgiving 9%.

In the end, Holmgreen secured the final spot on the stage podium, finishing +1:14 mins behind Gigante and +29 secs behind Longo Borghini. Reusser and Antonia followed a further three secs back.

This fifth place finish for Antonia moves her up two spots on GC to fifth overall – a strong rebound after slipping from fourth and taking a couple of GC hits during the intervening days between summit finishes. She now trails Rooijakkers (FDC) by just 12 secs, with Gigante a further +1:56 mins ahead in third. Van der Breggen remains her closest GC threat from behind at +39 secs, while her nearest Maglia Bianca rival, Holmgreen, now sits +47 secs back.

Antonia was both critical and pragmatic about her ride today.

“It was not like a brilliant performance, but still, it was okay, and I think we should be happy with what we have. I think tomorrow is also quite a hard stage – you could lose minutes, so I think we should keep on fighting because there are still a lot of possibilities.”

As Antonia suspects, the eighth and final stage will be anything but a gentle conclusion to this year’s Giro d’Italia Women. It’s set through medium-sized mountains and finishes on a circuit familiar to many in the peloton – the 2020 UCI Road World Championships course. Featuring punchy climbs, leg-stinging gradients, and snaking, technical roads, a well-rounded challenge awaits. Every aspect of bike racing will be tested one last time before the Maglia Rosa is crowned at the iconic Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Antonia wasn’t even riding bikes when that World Championships was held, but she’ll benefit from the experience of savvy teammates Cecilie, Soraya Paladin and Tiffany Cromwell, who both raced that edition. Fittingly, it was van der Breggen (SDW) who claimed victory on this circuit five years ago. Eyes will therefore need to stay alert for any late threats from behind on this last outing around Imola, while also looking ahead to potential stage success and GC gains.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Stage 8 | Sunday, July 13 | Forlì – Imola (Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari) | 133.8km  | 2417m elevation | Start: 10:40 – Fastest finish: 14:15 CET.

Live coverage available from 12:50 CET via Eurosport, Discovery Plus, TNT Sports, FloBikes and RAI. Stay updated on X with #GirodItaliaWomen and #UCIWWT, and follow CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto’s social channels for the latest team updates.