Liane Lippert won the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia Women in Chieti. It was a comeback victory for the Movistar rider after she was forced to miss most of the early season due to a stress fracture, and she was clearly overjoyed at the finish.
The 26-year-old German rider was part of four-up breakaway which had formed with 39km to go of the 159km stage, and managed to hold off a reduced bunch of favourites on the final climb up to the town centre finish in Chieti.
The longest stage of the race, it was a hot, hilly and attritional day in central Italy, starting on the Adriatic coast at San Benedetto del Tronto and heading south and inland to finish at Chieti.
Maglia rosa Elisa Longo Borghini and rival Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) attempted to drop each other on the climb but to no avail, and the pair remain separated by just three seconds at the top of the GC. The rest of the top is almost unchanged.
"It's amazing," said Lippert afterwards. "I had such a hard start [to the season]. It means so much to me.
"I had time to dream about it in the breakaway, and I kept on dreaming," she added. "I'm happy I could manage to win, but there was a lot of mental strength today.
"We knew it was a good parcours for me. With the heat, normally I have no big problems but today was next level. But it was the plan… I was in the right move.
Talking about her comeback from the stress fracture that has dogged her since the end of last season, she said: "I'm so relieved. Also, it's for everyone who kept believing in me and helped me in that long process. I'm happy."
How it happened
On paper a trio of cat-three climbs, well spread out across the day, doesn't sound like the toughest stage, but the route was never flat at any point and the heat and the distance only compounded the challenge.
The peloton seemed all too aware of how tough the day would be, with no one making the break for a very long time.
With 54km to ride, two riders did manage to escape, by which time there were only around 30 riders left in the peloton.
But the race came back together to take on the second climb of the day at Penne (sorry, but it's not the home of the tubular pasta), where a group of four riders went clear, with around 40km to go – Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health), Ana Santesteban (Laboral Kutxa), Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) and Liane Lippert (Movistar).
The quartet managed to break the mould of the past few days by establishing a gap that quickly rose to nearly two minutes, and by the time they hit the final, 4.5km categorised climb to the finish at Chieti they had a 2:15 advantage.
It quickly began to fall as the bunch – by now reduced to around 20 riders – doubled down on its chase.
Santesteban was tailed off from the front group as the gap began to fall, and under the 3km banner the bunch had moved to within less than a minute as Kopecky made her move.
Longo Borghini followed and the pair were quickly out ahead, wiping 25 seconds off the breakaway gap in the space of a few hundred metres.
But with neither was able to drop the other the impetus went from their move as the break crested the climb. There were still 2km to go, but the escapees were home and dry.
Results
Giro d'Italia Women, Stage 6: San Benedetto del Tronto > Chieti, 159km
1. Liane Lippert (Ger) Movistar, in 4:16:21
2. Ruth Edwards (USA) Human Powered Health, at s.t.
3. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, +1s
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +21s
5. Neve Bradbury (Aus) Canyon-SRAM
6. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL
7. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx-Protime
8. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM
9. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-Suez
10. Mavi García (Esp) Liv-AlUla-Jayco, all at s.t.
General Classification after Stage 6
1. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, in 16:24:29
2. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx-Protime, +3s
3. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-Suez, +38s
4. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich-PostNL, +49s
5. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM, +1:06
6. Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar (Mus) AG Insurance-Soudal, +1:28s
7. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime, +1:29
8. Mavi García (Esp) Liv Jayco-AlUla, +1:33
9. Katrine Aalerud (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +1:34
10. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, at s.t.
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