Stage 5 of the 2023 Giro d’Italia Donne delivered a shake-up in the general classification, putting the maglia rosa more securely on the shoulders of Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) as she gained time on most of the other GC contenders.
Widely viewed pre-race as the queen stage, the 2023 Giro’s most difficult day included the Cima Coppi ascent of the Passo del Lupo early on and two more classified climbs in the final.
The only rider to beat Van Vleuten, by nine seconds, was German Antonia Niedermaier. In her first Giro Donne, the 20-year-old Canyon-SRAM racer took her courage in both hands and launched a solo attack on the penultimate climb that won her the stage.
Including time bonifications, Niedermaier gained one-and-a-half minutes or more on the rest of the peloton and leapfrogged from 14th place overall to second place, 2:07 minutes behind the maglia rosa. She also takes the lead in the U-23 classification and will wear the white jersey on stage 7.
Further behind, Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) rallied from being dropped on the Passo del Lupo, returning to the chase group and finishing the stage in fifth place to defend her third place overall.
However, she lost time to Van Vleuten and is now 2:18 minutes behind, but still has a good shot at the GC podium.
Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich) moved up one spot in GC, from fifth to fourth, though her deficit on Van Vleuten almost doubled to three minutes. Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) is fifth, 14 seconds behind the French climber, and will now be her team’s protected rider as Elisa Longo Borghini, second overall going into the stage, crashed on the final descent.
The Italian champion crossed the finish line 7:33 down and dropped to 17th place, and it is not yet certain whether she can continue the race.
Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) both sit at 3:39 in sixth and seventh place, followed by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ). The exuberant Dane dropped four places and is 4:29 behind but remains her team’s best hope of a good GC result as Marta Cavalli paid for her efforts early on the stage, losing four-and-a-half minutes and tumbling to 13th place.
Ane Santesteban (Team Jayco AlUla) also lost two positions and is now ninth at 4:57. Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx), on the other hand, jumped from 19th to 10th overall, just six seconds behind the Basque climber. Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) and Fem van Empel (Team Jumbo-Visma) are another eight seconds down.
The challenges to come
With four stages to go and a two-minute advantage, Van Vleuten nevertheless has to stay attentive in order to win her fourth Giro d’Italia Donne.
On its last 40km, stage 6 includes the climb to Castino, five kilometres at 5%, the two-kilometre, 7% climb to Calosso, and finally a 2.7-kilometre climb to the finish overlooking Canelli that begins with a kilometre at 10% before flattening out.
Stage 7 criss-crosses the Ligurian Alps and is arguably the second-hardest of the race. The long but gradual Passo del Ginestro in the first 40 km is nowhere as steep as the Passo del Lupo. But the Il Vigneto which follows climbs five kilometres through olive groves in the Ligurian hinterland at an average of 6%, with gradients reaching a maximum of 11%.
There is another similar climb – just over six kilometres at an average of 5.5% – in the last 15 km, the Cima Paravenna, well-known from the men’s Trofeo Laigueglia race. At the top, riders will stay on the mountain ridge until the five-kilometre mark where a short descent leads directly into the finishing climb, another 2.7 km at 6.7%, with the steepest hairpins topping out at over 12%.
After a well-deserved rest day (that also serves as a travel day to Sardinia), the last two stages are rolling, but not quite as challenging.
Stage 8 finishes uphill into Sassari where the last two kilometres rise at just over 3%. The final stage features a five-kilometre, 5% climb within the first 10 kilometres that could serve as a springboard for a breakaway. Halfway through the stage, the ascent to Tempio Pausania is 12 km long, but the average gradient is only just over 4%, and the remaining 50 km to the finish are not particularly challenging, favouring a peloton over any attackers.
