After Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) had taken the maglia rosa with a solo win on stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia Donne, the Netherlands racer originally saw stage 4 as one where she might be able to take it easy.
But things worked out rather differently when the current World Champion launched another of her trademark attacks on the final climb of the hilly stage, which only Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) could follow.
The current Italian national champion went on to win the stage in a sprint against Van Vleuten and earlier breakaway Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), while Van Vleuten, third, strengthened her overall lead against all bar two of her opponents.
“I have to say that I marked this stage as a sprinters' stage. But then my team directors talked to me yesterday evening, ‘maybe the attack is the best form of defence’, Van Vleuten recounted later.
“I was straight onto this plan because I like to race aggressively, so every aggressive plan is also better for me.”
“We saw that, in the final, there was a climb with three kilometre ‘steps’.
“My team did an awesome lead-out to set it up for me, that was necessary, because it was quite punchy. I needed a long, hard effort, so they did an awesome job. I went straight after the speed went a bit down, and only Elisa could follow me.”
Van Vleuten had done all the work on the climb when the Italian champion had been happy to sit on, and when Ewers and Longo Borghini started skipping turns in the final kilometres to save themselves for the sprint, Van Vleuten continued racing hard onto the finishing straight.
She finished third but gained 40 seconds plus a four-second time bonification on the rest of the race.
“The main goal was to take time on other GC contenders. The DS only allowed me to think about the stage in the last kilometre. That was really good coaching.”
“I know Elisa is a bit faster than me, especially because I pulled quite hard and I felt that the sprint was not in my legs anymore. I always want to win, but it wasn’t close, she was way faster,” Van Vleuten explained.
Before her attack on the final climb, Van Vleuten had a brief scare with 37 km to go: She touched the rear wheel of Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) with her front wheel, causing her to collide with Marta Jaskulska (Liv Racing TeqFind) and then fall to the ground at low speed.
Longo Borghini, Lizzie Stannard (Israel-Premier Tech Roland) and Lauren Stephens (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) all had to put a foot down as well. Van Vleuten did not crash onto the tarmac, though, and was quickly back on her bike.
An ultra-difficult stage 5
The maglia rosa’s thoughts now turn to stage 5 from Salassa to Ceres. The stage features the Cima Coppi, the highest climb of the race, with the summit of the Passo del Lupo just 26.8 km into the 105.7-kilometre stage. The Passo del Lupo climbs for 10.1 kilometres at an average gradient of 8.4%, meaning that the peloton is certain to break apart on its slopes.
After the Cima Coppi, the race will descend to Cuorgnè for the intermediate sprint that offers bonus seconds. Following that, an uncategorised climb to Forno Canavese means that dropped riders will have to work hard to come back, and the long but gradual ascent to Vietti (12.6 km at 3.5%) kicks off the finale.
The 6.1-kilometre, 6.6% climb to Sant’Ignazio offers the last opportunity to blow the race apart, and the final three kilometres are also slightly uphill.
“Tomorrow is not a stage where I felt like I can relax a bit. No, tomorrow is a super hard stage,” Van Vleuten confirmed.
