Demi Vollering (FDJ-United) won stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia Women after an unstable ice sheet forced organisers to stop the race approximately 1km below the summit of the Colle delle Finestre, removing the descent and the planned summit finish at Sestriere. The decision, communicated to riders while they were already on the climb, turned the queen stage into a truncated summit finish and changed the race's decisive day.
Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to second ahead of Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), with maglia rosa Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) fourth on the same time. Van der Breggen leads Vollering by 50 seconds heading into the final day, with Niedermaier at 1:20 and Holmgren at 1:55.
Finestre finish changes stage 8
The original stage 8 from Rivoli to Sestriere was built around roughly 2,800 metres of climbing and was framed all week as the race's main GC battleground. The Colle delle Finestre, long, steep, partly gravelled roads topping out above 2,100 metres, was supposed to be the launch point rather than the finish. After cresting the summit, riders would have descended a very tricky downhill and faced a final climb to Sestriere, giving attackers two additional phases to press any advantage gained on the gravel.
However, organisers had to change plans with a statement being put out while the riders were already well onto the climb: "due to an unstable sheet of ice that could fall onto the road, for safety reasons, the stage will finish approximately 1km before the Colle delle Finestre GPM." Van der Breggen said she understood that the decision was last minute due to weather on the climb.
The late communication forced teams and riders to recalculate. Van der Breggen, who had crashed on stage 7, said the change affected her fuelling and her mindset. "This climb goes harder in the end because normally, you know, it's still downhill and then still a climb coming up, and that was now different," she said in the post-stage press conference. "So you need to change the mindset a bit in suffering more on this climb. I think I took an extra gel."
It was simple for Van der Breggen, she had a clear tactic for the day and anything else was a bonus. "I need to follow Demi for sure, and Antonia and Isabella. That did not change for me so much." But the shorter stage suited her situation. "It's not bad if I'm in the first group that the stage is shorter," she said.
Vollering arrived at the press conference with her usual beaming smile but she did seem frustrated that she wasn't able to contest the whole stage, despite getting the stage win and closing 10 seconds on Van der Breggen. The European champion described the finish as surreal. "It was strange because suddenly it was the final climb," she said. "For sure it was the weirdest finish line of my life. I didn't think last night that it would finish like this."
It is Vollering's second win of this Giro but she wasn't going all in for that alone. She wanted to crack Van der Breggen and take pink for herself, but due to the stage being compressed it was not to be and puts a lot of focus on the final less challenging day tomorrow. Vollering acknowledged as much after the stage, saying that FDJ United-Suez's original plan had been to move closer to the maglia rosa or even take it. "Tomorrow the stage is not as hard as today's stage, but we will plan, we will do a plan this evening and think how to try to win the Giro d'Italia," she said.
Van der Breggen holds firm after stage 7 crash
Van der Breggen rode to fourth place with a controlled performance. She set a strong pace in the final kilometre, a move she described as partly tactical, partly opportunistic. When we asked if she set that tempo to stop attacks or to be more offensive the former world champion said, "a bit of both. I was feeling okay, so I can put a good pace and with this maybe drop riders, or avoid attacks as well."
The crash on stage 7 had raised questions about whether she could hold form on the queen stage. Instead, she finished on the same time as the top three and limited Vollering's gains to what the bonus seconds and stage placings allowed.
Holmgren, 21, reinforced her hold on the white jersey with second place and moved into fourth overall. She had described the Finestre before the stage as "a super, super tough climb" and backed that assessment with a sprint finish that beat Niedermaier for second.
Behind the front group, Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team) was distanced early on the Finestre ascent but limited her losses to finish sixth on the day. She sits fifth overall at 3:00, with Femke de Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike)
33 seconds behind after taking fifth on the stage. The top 10 in GC is separated by 5:59 before the final stage.
Vollering now has one day left to find 50 seconds on a route she admits is less demanding than the one that was cut short.
Cover image credit: Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse
