Giro d'Italia Donne: Marianne Vos wins stage 3 in Ovada

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Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) has won stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia Donne, her 29th career victory at the Italian race.

The 34-year-old Dutchwoman easily won the sprint of a breakaway of four that got away on the hardest climb of the day with 47 kilometres to go and continually increased their advantage over a reduced peloton. Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) was second, Liane Lippert (Team DSM) third, Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) finished fourth.

At 3:18 minutes behind the winning breakaway, Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT) won the bunch sprint for fifth place ahead of Coryn Rivera (Team DSM) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team). Due to the large time gap, Chabbey moved up to fourth overall at 2:41 minutes behind maglia rosa Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx).

Vos pointed a finger to the sky when she crossed the line in dedication to cyclo-cross rider Jolien Verschueren who had passed away two days earlier.

“Of course, it is incredible to win 29 times, when you still can do your passion and do what you love. It is so strange to lose Jolien Verschueren this week due to cancer," Vos said.

"We are here and we think we suffer, but there is so much more in life. I thought about her, and that gave me extra power, I knew how dedicated she was, and I wanted to do a special race for her."

Van der Breggen continues to lead the general classification as well as the points classification, and Chabbey took over the green jersey for the leader of the mountain classification. Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) continues to be the best U23 rider
and Erica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT) is the best Italian rider.

“Today was not an easy stage," Van der Breggen said. "Due to the rain, the roads were really slippery. It was scary I must say, but I survived today. Tomorrow is the TT so it’s going to be hard again."

How it unfolded

The first half of stage 3 from Casale Monferrato to Ovada was relatively flat, but the second half more than made up for that with a continuous up-and-down including four category-three climbs. 

The rain that began to fall shortly after the start dissuaded the peloton from forming a breakaway until the first categorised climb.

Brodie Chapman (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) was first over the Morsasco climb, 16 seconds ahead of the peloton. Chabbey, Sabrina Stultiens (Liv Racing), Grace Brown (Team BikeExchange), Lippert, and Brand bridged to Chapman, but this group was deemed too dangerous by the peloton and reeled in again.

Brand and Lippert attacked again on the descent. On the climb to Ovada, they were joined by Vos, Chabbey, who crashed but was able to get back up, and the latter’s teammate Mikayla Harvey. Harvey lost contact on the hard climb, leaving four riders at the front of the race.

Cresting the Ovada climb, they had over 30 seconds on the peloton that had been reduced to some 25 riders. The time gap continued to go up in the 47 kilometres that followed, maxing out at over four minutes. With none of the four riders a real GC danger, Team SD Worx was happy to control the race and let the break contest the stage.

"Today was a really wet stage, so I'm happy that we survived," said third-placed on GC, Demi Vollering (SD Worx). "Three of our girls crashed but they are OK. It was really slippery, so I'm happy that we survived. It was also a hard stage, up and down, and somewhat chaotic in the last part, but our team rode well."

When Vos made it over the final climb with the others, she was the favourite to win the sprint, and a headwind in the final kilometres discouraged attacks by the other three. Chabbey led the group onto the final kilometre where the four riders weaved from one side of the road to the other. 

Finally, Brand launched her sprint with 200 metres to go, taking the inside line through the final corner, but Vos had no trouble in going past and take a convincing victory.

The racing resumes for stage 4's uphill time trial that is 11.2km from Formazza Loc. Fondovalle to Riale Di Formazza Cascate Del Toce.

"For tomorrow, I'm not sure what to expect because I haven't seen the climb yet, only the profile, so I'm really curious to see how this climb is, and I think we can do well in the time trial, so I'm looking forward to it," said Vollering.