Anna van der Breggen wins 2021 Giro d'Italia Donne

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Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx) has won her fourth Giro d'Italia Donne. On the final stage of the 2021 edition, the maglia rosa made her way into a strong breakaway that held off the peloton by 23 seconds to the finish line in Cormons.

Coryn Rivera (Team DSM) beat Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) in the sprint to win the stage 10, while Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) finished third, and Van der Breggen crossed the line in fourth place with her arms aloft to celebrate the overall victory.

Rivera pointed to the sky after crossing the line and dedicated the victory to her father, a healthcare worker who passed away from Covid-19 a few months ago.

“My dad was watching me from above, and that was for my dad. Also, it is my fiancé’s birthday today, and I am not home, so this is for my two guys. I feel really strong, I have a lot of motivation, and I had an angel on my shoulder today,” Rivera said after the stage.

Van der Breggen also wins the points classification while her teammate Niamh Fisher-Black is the best young rider. Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo), who initiated the breakaway but lost contact on the final climb, wins the mountain classification. Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) wins the blue jersey as the best Italian rider.

How it undfolded

The final stage covered 113 kilometres between Capriva del Friuli and Cormòns and included four third-category climbs: The climb to Sovenza and three ascents of a climb to the village of Ruttars, the last one cresting 9km from the finish.

With four climbs on the stage, Brand’s green mountain jersey was still in danger, and the Dutch rider decided that attack was the best defence. She made her move on the Sovenza climb to take maximum points, and in the descent, a front group of five formed, also including Van der Breggen, Deignan, Chabbey, and Rivera.

The peloton split on the second climb, and a strong group of eleven riders was briefly in between the front group and the bunch before being reeled in again. In the peloton, the chase was led by Movistar Team and Liv Racing while in the breakaway, Van der Breggen was content to sit on the other four riders’ wheels and not take any turns to drive the group. Their advantage fluctuated, maxing out at 2:08 minutes halfway through the stage.

15 kilometres from the finish, this was down to about a minute. Brand did a lot of work to keep that advantage, and as a result she was dropped when Rivera increased the pace on a short hill before the Ruttars climb.

On the climb, Sofia Bertizzolo (Liv Racing) attacked from the peloton in a last bid to bridge to the front and contest the stage, but the versatile Italian was caught again on the descent. Brand was also back in the peloton with six kilometres to go when the front group of four still had a 30-second lead.

Wanting to tire out the stronger sprinter Rivera before the finish, Deignan skipped her turns for a while, leaving only Rivera and Chabbey to do the work before joining the pace-line again on the final three kilometres.

On the finishing straight, Rivera and Deignan were head-to-head, Chabbey being without a chance and Van der Breggen not contesting the sprint. In the end, Rivera’s bike throw on the line meant that she could celebrate her first Giro Donne stage victory. Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) brought home the peloton 23 seconds later.