Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) emerged as the second-strongest rider in the Giro d’Italia Donne on stage 8. She was the last of the GC contenders to be dropped by race leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) when the Dutchwoman went for a solo victory to further increase her GC lead.
The 24-year-old Italian may be facing an increased gap to the Movistar rider but her performance meant she gained time on all her other GC rivals, riding away from Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) on the Lago di Cei climb.
“I was just focused on staying with Van Vleuten,” Cavalli said after stage 8. “She paced really hard the first part of the climb, I sat on her wheel and looked back to see what had happened. Eventually, García was dropped, and they told me from the car that the gap was increasing. I tried to keep my pace and go as hard as I could to increase the gap."
Cavalli kept up the pace to distance the Spanish champion, taking over two minutes on García at the finish and switching places in the general classification. Cavalli is now in second place with a solid buffer to Garcia. However, finishing 59 seconds behind stage winner and overall leader Van Vleuten also opened up the gap to the top step.
"I was close to Van Vleuten, but then she increased her speed, and I lost a bit of time before the downhill,” said Cavalli.
For most of the climb, Cavalli was only a few seconds behind Van Vleuten until the maglia rosa used her experience to add to her advantage on the flat after the mountain sprint. A controlled crash briefly interrupted Van Vleuten’s descent, but Cavalli never had a chance to catch up.
“I received information on the radio about the crash, but I was already going all-out in the downhill and could not change anything. It was good that she did not have too many problems and was able to start again after the crash,” said Cavalli, happy that her competitor was unharmed.
Cavalli is now 2:13 minutes behind the two-time Giro d'Italia Donne winner and 1:29 minutes ahead of García in third place ahead of the final mountain stage, 112.8 km from San Michele all’Adige to San Lorenzo Dorsino with three classified climbs and an uphill finish.
The second place overall would be her best result yet in the Italian stage race after a 14th place in 2020 and a sixth place in 2021. Cavalli’s priority is to secure that runner-up spot but if the opportunity presents itself she is prepared to attack the maglia rosa and can count on a strong FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope squad to support her.
“I have a big gap between Van Vleuten and me. We have two goals tomorrow, try to drop García again to make my second place safe, but if Annemiek has problems after the crash or after nine days of racing, I will try my best to go for the maglia rosa. It will be a hard stage that I look forward to,” Cavalli said.
