Unbreakable Vos!

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Maglia rosa wearer Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) won for the fifth time in nine stages at the 2011 Giro Donne as she soloed to victory on the mountain finish in Ceresole Reale. As the day before, the stage finish came down to a two-rider race between Vos and Briton Emma Pooley (Garmin-Cervelo) but this time the Dutchwoman dropped Pooley in the finale and finished 12 seconds ahead.

Judith Arndt (HTC-Highroad) finished third, 22 seconds down on Vos, while Tatiana Guderzo (SC MCipollini Giordana) crossed the line for fourth place three seconds later.

Vos holds a commanding lead in the Giro Donne after the penultimate stage with only Pooley somewhat able to limit her losses overall. Pooley, the reigning time trial world champion, trails Vos by 2:48. Arndt rounds out the top three, 8:07 behind Vos, and faces a tight duel for the final podium position with Tatiana Guderzo (SC MCipollini Giordana), who trails the German by 14 seconds with one stage remaining.

In addition to leading general classification, Vos also leads both the points and mountains classifications.

The ninth stage of the Giro Donne took the peloton 114.8km from Aglie' to Ceresole Reale with the primary challenge taking place in the day's endgame with a 20km climb up to the finish.

The day's early break formed after 34km of racing and included Monia Baccaille (SC MCipollini Giordana), 2009 Giro Donne champion Claudia Häusler (Diadora-Pasta Zara), Swedish champion Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-UCK), Irene Van Den Broek (AA Drink-Leontien.nl Cycling Team), Polona Batagelj (Bizkaia-Durango), Ashleigh Moolman (Lotto Honda Team), Sharon Laws (Garmin-Cervelo), Andrea Dvorak (Colavita Forno d'Asolo) and Amanda Miller (HTC Highroad).

The escapees extended their lead out to 2:20 by the time they passed through Cuorgnè and began the lengthy climb to the finish.

Once the leaders began climbing, the break shattered as Häusler and Johansson dispatched of their fellow escapees. The peloton, too, splintered on the climb's lowers slopes. Vos chased down an attack from Pooley and then went on an attack of her own. Vos bridged to Häusler and Johansson in a lengthy tunnel with Pooley in hot pursuit. Just as Pooley was about to make contact with the lead trio Vos attacked but Pooley was able to make her way past Häusler and Johansson to the maglia rosa.

Arndt and Guderzo rode together in pursuit of Vos and Pooley and a little further back another chase group formed containing 2010 Giro Donne champion Mara Abbott (Diadora-Pasta Zara), Häusler, Tatiana Antoshina (Gauss), Johannson and Ruth Corset (Bizkaia-Durango).

As the climb leveled out in the final kilometre Vos once again put her stamp of authority on the Giro Donne. With 200m remaining to the finish, the Dutch champion unleashed a powerful attack to which Pooley had no response.

Only one stage remains in the Giro Donne, a rolling 16km individual time trial in San Francisco al Campo on Sunday.

Full Results