The Giro d’Italia Women looked like it was all but settled at the end of stage 8. Demi Vollering failed to drop Ann van der Breggen, Niedermaier and Holmgren on the shortened Finestra. Vollering herself practically conceded the pink jersey in her flash interview. But Canyon Sram zondercrypto and Antonia Niedermaier clealry had other ideas for the final stage.
After the first proper climb of the day, which Vollering crested first, the race was blown apart on the descent. This led to Niedermaier, Elisa Longo Borghini and Niamh Fisher-Black breaking away at the front, catching the race leaders out.
Niedermaier had moved into the virtual pink jersey with a gap of almost two minutes
Vollering dropped Van der Breggen and hit out for Pink
After working together to catch Femke de Vries, Vollering attacked Van der Breggen with just under 40km to go. Vollering was able to bridge across to the front group with 27km to go, and went immediately to the front of the group.
Van der Bregen continued working with de Vries to try and hang onto the pink jersey, but with 25 km to go, Vollering was the virtual leader on the road.