Giro Rosa: fading glory

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Giro Rosa has long been the most prestigious stage race on the women’s calendar. But with crashes, bad roads, tales of organisational difficulties and a lack of live TV, Procycling magazine witnessed a fascinating if restrained edition, that threatened its future status as number one.

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The stage had been dynamic. The breakaway’s last survivor dispatched on the day’s final climb, and CCC-Liv’s Soraya Paladin led a group of around 25 women into the closing kilometre hoping team-mate Marianne Vos could win a fourth stage. But when the Italian swerved to avoid yet another pothole the ripple effect resulted in a crash, with Van Vleuten going down hard. She crossed the line on her bike, her left arm carried awkwardly by her side, climbing into an ambulance rather than onto the podium to celebrate another day in pink.

Poor roads had been an increasing problem as this year’s nine-day event headed south from the start in Tuscany into Campania, and eventual overall winner Anna van der Breggen voiced her concerns. “We’ve had bad roads already for days so actually we were quite surprised it was all fine until now,” Boels-Dolmans’ Olympic champion said. “We try to avoid the potholes in the road and yeah, if you are in the final you are close to the other girls, so it can happen.”

But there were other issues, with stage 6 perhaps the worst example. At the start in Torre del Greco team staff were seen sweeping litter from around their busses, and wise riders carried their bikes across the glass strewn car park to avoid punctures. The 11km neutral zone indicated in the roadbook, and announced on race radio as the peloton rolled, was shortened to around 4km without warning, and an intermediate sprint situated on a speed bump only 100m after a 90 degree turn on a roundabout was not untypical.

Team parking is often an issue, and as recently as 2016 riders could be sharing rooms with three others with no air-conditioning (the race typically takes place in July). Despite improvements, it’s still way short of the standards now seen at other events, such as the UK’s Women’s Tour, and with ASO launching a French stage race in 2022 it faces an existential threat in its status as the number one stage race on the calendar.

However, the Giro Rosa offers what other women’s races cannot. Missing only two years since its 1988 debutto, the Giro Rosa is the oldest, and at its normal 10 days, the longest stage race on the women’s calendar. The only ‘grand tour.’ Even without Alpine climbs, this year’s race was hard, and the shorter, punchier ascents were often longer and harder than those found in most other women’s races.

The 16.8km route was the only flat day, and while time gaps among the top teams were never likely to be huge, it was especially close with just 10 seconds separating the top four squads. Trek-Segafredo celebrated lavishly, soaking each other with Prosecco, and while their leader, Elisa Longo Borghini, was realistic about her chances of overall victory, she beamed from ear to ear at the prospect of wearing maglia rosa for the first time despite having finished as top Italian five times.

Longo Borghini’s stint in pink would turn out to be short, as on stage 2 Van Vleuten launched her bid to become only the second woman after Fabiana Luperini in 1998 to win three consecutive editions of the Giro. Her Mitchelton-Scott team knew how important the stage would be and previewed the route and its two gravel sectors the day after Strade Bianche, which the Dutchwoman had won six weeks before.

At 124km with more than 3,000m of climbing stage 2 was not an easy day, but the second sector of gravel began with 16km remaining and on a classified climb that would have proved challenging even on tarmac. After attacking at the bottom and gapping her rivals, Van Vleuten was the first of many forced to get off her bike and run, as the combination of deep pools of gravel and huge rocks punctuated the 20 per cent gradients. However, she emerged with an overall lead of 1-18, the general classification apparently all but done just two days in. Van der Breggen finished second, Niewiadoma third and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), the only rider able to hold Van Vleuten’s wheel for any time on the gravel, was fourth. Longo Borghini lost over four minutes, slipping to 10th on GC, but over the ensuing days was the only woman able to recover sufficient time to move into the top four.

Assisi’s high Roman walls, a UNESCO world heritage site, hide a multitude of monasteries and churches, and could be seen by the peloton on stage 3 high on the side of Monte Subasio across the flat fields east of Perugia, some 15km away. But with changes made to the day’s finish in the town due to a landslide, which was only announced the evening before and not communicated well to the teams, the peloton were left unsure of the exact finale even as they were riding towards it.

Still, the 2020 Giro had the capacity to show why it’s earned the status as the number one stage race one the women’s calendar. At 170km, plus a 12km neutral zone, stage 4 was the longest Women’s WordTour day ever raced - the UCI rules stipulate that women’s road races be capped at 160km. The prospect of the stage had been blamed for a lack of animation on the preceding two road stages, so it was ironic that this was the most dynamic day so far.

Just like Vos’ stage wins seemed inevitable, the GC also looked over after stage 2 once Van Vleuten took the lead. Van der Breggen, the two-time GC winner considered her compatriot’s biggest rival before the race began, may have had one eye on the upcoming World Championships, and seemed to ride within herself during the opening seven days. But once Van Vleuten abandoned and there was a chance of victory, she attacked just once with devastating effect.