Stage 8: Blanka Vas (Team SD Worx) won stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia Donne, beating Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) and Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) in an uphill sprint to take her first Giro stage, as Annemiek van Vleuten wears the maglia rosa into the finale stage 9 on Sunday.
Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) dropped out of the top three overall, down to fourth place, and Van Vleuten now leads the GC by 3:56 minutes ahead of Juliette Labous (Team DSM-Firmenich) and 4:25 minutes ahead of Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek).
Stage 4: It was the longest stage at the Giro d'Italia Donne and was initially tipped for sprinters, but a potential bunch sprint was thwarted by a series of long-range attacks that ended with a three-rider breakaway succeeding as Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) won stage 4 ahead of Veronica Ewers (EF-Education-TIBCO-SVB) and overall leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar).
Stage 2: Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) took advantage of one of the few stages with a significant climb, attacking over the Passo della Colla and soloing to a 49-second overall lead in the Giro Donne.
Stage 1: The opening time trial was cancelled due to a heavy downpour, lightning, hail and blocked roads that forced the CPA Women and the race jury to apply the Extreme Weather Protocol at the Giro d'Italia Donne. The cancelled stage meant that there was no stage winner and no leader's maglia rosa awarded in Chianciano.
The Giro d’Italia Donne is a long-running women's stage race which has carved a niche as one of the most prestigious women's events in the world. It is the only women's event that has traditionally covered 10 days of racing and includes a number of iconic mountain passes. The race will celebrate its 34th anniversary in 2023.
The Giro d'Italia Donne and Tour de France Femmes are the two biggest races of the year and will both be held in July before the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships held in Glasgow.
The Giro d'Italia Donne returned to the Women's WorldTour in 2022 after being downgraded in 2021 for not offering live broadcasting of the race in 2020.
The Giro d'Italia Donne is currently organised by PMG Sport/Starlight, an organization that took over the women's stage race in 2021 and 2022 from long-time organiser Giuseppe Rivolta.
The 2022 Giro d'Italia overall winner, Annemiek van Vleuten, will return with her Movistar team to defend her general classification title in the 2023 edition. Van Vleuten is in her final year of racing before retirement and is aiming to win the Giro d'Italia Donne for the fourth time in her career. She won overall titles in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Trek-Segafredo, renamed Lidl-Trek, lines up with several cards to play; Elisa Longo Borghini, Gaia Realini and Lizzie Deignan. While Longo Borghini is capable of winning on any stage, given her versatility as a rider, Realini's pure climbing strengths will surely be saved for the Passo (Pian) del Lupo, which is marked as the 'Cima Coppi' of the Giro d'Italia Donne, the highest peak of the race, on stage 5. Elisa Longo Borghini said she will aim for stage wins and race with "true grit and tenacity."
Giro d'Italia Donne 2023 Map - Stage 5 includes the Passo (Pian) del Lupo, which is marked as the 'Cima Coppi' of the Giro d'Italia Donne (Image credit: PMG Sport/Starlight)
The Giro d’Italia Donne route will cater to the most powerful riders who can cover both relentlessly steep pitches to long high-mountain terrain.
The 2023 Giro d'Italia Donne route will cover 928km across nine stages and will traverse the five Italian regions of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Liguria and Sardinia.
The main feature of this year's race will be the Passo (Pian) del Lupo, which is marked as the 'Cima Coppi' of the Giro d'Italia Donne, the highest peak of the race, on stage 5.
June 30 - Stage 1: Chianciano, 4,4km (ITT)
July 1 - Stage 2: Bagno a Ripoli to Marradi, 102,1km
July 2 - Stage 3: Formigine to Modena, 118,2km
July 3 - Stage 4: Fidenza to Borgo Val di Taro, 134km
July 4 - Stage 5: Salassa to Ceres, 103,3km
July 5 - Stage 6: Canelli to Canelli, 104,4km
July 6 - Stage 7: Albenga to Alassio, 109,1km
July 7 - Rest Day
July 8 - Stage 8: Nuoro to Sassari, 125,7km
July 9 - Stage 9: Sassari to Olbia, 126,8km
Giro d'Italia Donne History
In the Giro d'Italia's more than three-decade-long history, some of the past winners include inaugural champion Maria Canins (Italy) in 1988, Catherine Marsal (France) in 1990, five-time winner Fabiana Luperini (Italy) from 1995-98 and 2008, two-time winner Joane Somarriba (Spain) in 1999 and 2000, three-time winner Nicole Brändli (Switzerland) in 2001, 2003 and 2005, Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) in 2004, and two-time winner Edita Pučinskaitė (Lithuania) in 2006 and 2007.
Two three-time winners, both from the Netherlands, are expected to be on the start this year: Marianne Vos (2011, 2012, 2014) and defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten (2018, 2019, 2022).
Last year, Vleuten dominated the race on her winning to winning her third Maglia Rosa. She claimed the leader’s jersey after winning stage 4, and then stamped her authority with a solo victory on stage 8, overcoming a late crash on the final descent to extend her overall lead. Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) finished second overall at 1:52 back, and Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) was third, 5:56 down.
2023 Giro d'Italia Donne Schedule - Start Times and Finish Times
