Team DSM-Firmenich did their best to make stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia Donne a hard one in their quest to put Juliette Labous on the overall podium, with success as the French rider moved up to third overall in Canelli.
Things looked very promising during the 102.7km stage as her main rival Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) was distanced over the Calosso climb, but Ewers returned on the run-in to the finish, only losing three seconds to Labous on the short finishing climb.
An unfortunate mid-race crash forced stage 5 winner Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) and Urška Žigart (Jayco AlUla) to abandon the race.
“We wanted to make everyone tired. Yesterday was a really hard day, but I felt good today. We wanted to try to drop others so we could get onto the podium,” Labous said after stage 6.
Her teammates Esmée Peperkamp and Francesca Barale pushed hard on the climb to Castino, reducing the size of the peloton to 42 riders at the top. Ewers and Niedermaier were both there, but the 20-year-old German crashed soon after, suffering injuries and having to abandon the race.
Labous took three bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, then Peperkamp and Barale went to the front again before the climb to Calosso where Labous went all-in.
When Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) attacked over the top of Labous, Ewers was relatively far back in the group in about 12th position and was gapped by Labous and the other GC contenders.
Labous briefly lost contact with that group herself but quickly fought her way back.
“We had the plan to attack the last climb so I went full, but then Annemiek countered me, so it was really hard. On the top, it was actually quite a good situation with Ewers dropped but everything came back together,” said Labous.
In the group of seven behind Van Vleuten, only Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx), Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind), and Labous took turns to keep the next group with Ewers at bay. 7.7km from the finish, Ewers and seven other riders returned – and just before the 700-metre finishing climb, another group of 20 came back.
In the uphill sprint, Labous lost three seconds to Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), Fisher-Black, García, and Ane Santesteban (Team Jayco AlUla) but gained the same time on Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) and Ewers. In the general classification, the Frenchwoman is now third overall, 36 seconds behind Ewers and 20 seconds ahead of Realini.
“I think mentally it’s a good sign. I’m really happy and looking forward to the next days where we will keep fighting to stay on the podium and maybe even get a better spot. I’m happy with today, it was some super work from everyone and a really nice day as a team,” finished Labous.
