Giro d’Italia Women: Demi Vollering overtakes Anna van der Breggen on final day for overall title as Elisa Longo Borghini wins stage 9 sprint

Anna van der Breggen of SD Worx – Protime rides in the Pink Leader Jersey from the start in Saluzzo (Image credit: Getty Images)

Starting and finishing in Saluzzo, the 145km stage included the first-category climb to Montoso (8.9km at an average 9.4%), cresting 54.2km into the stage. It was followed by the third-category Colletta di Paesana and the second-category Colletta di Brondello, with 38.4km from the top of the last climb to the finish.

Despite several attempts, there was no early breakaway. FDJ United-Suez pushed hard from the bottom of the Montoso climb, and only seven riders remained at the front as Vollering led Niedermaier, Van der Breggen, Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike), Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek), Fisher-Black, and Longo Borghini over the top of the climb.

Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-SUEZ) leads a group of favourites on the Montoso climb (Image credit: Getty Images)

Niedermaier attacked from this group 80km from the finish and was let go, with Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black jumping across to her soon after. De Vries also went on the chase but never made it to the front.

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Niedermaier’s group was more than two minutes ahead over the third-category Colletta di Paesana, putting the German climber in the virtual lead. Dickson came back to Van der Breggen and Vollering after the climb and immediately went to work, picking up De Vries reducing the gap to 1:35 minutes at the foot of the Colletta di Brondello.

Demi Vollering goes on a solo attack to catch the breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)

Soon after Dickson was dropped, Vollering launched her attack and left Van der Breggen behind. At the top of the climb, the group with Niedermaier, Longo Borghini, and Fisher-Black was 53 seconds ahead of Vollering, with Van der Breggen at 1:21 minutes.

Vollering quickly made up time on the following descent and reached the front group 28km from the finish, just as the gradual climb to the day’s intermediate sprint started, and immediately went to the front of the group to increase the advantage.

Demi Vollering (FDJ United – SUEZ) joins the leaders and ups the pace riding in the Blue Queen of the Mountain Jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)

At the intermediate sprint, Vollering picked up six bonus seconds, but more importantly, Van der Breggen was now 1:24 minutes behind, putting Vollering in the virtual lead. In the last 20km, Van der Breggen kept losing ground, eventually finishing 2:23 minutes down and dropping to third place overall.

In the streets of Saluzzo, Vollering led the group through the penultimate corner, then Fisher-Black launched a long sprint from the 300m mark and got a gap. With Vollering backing off, Longo Borghini went after the New Zealander and passed her in the last 50 metres to win the stage.

Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) wins stage 9 ahead of Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl – Trek) (Image credit: Getty Images)

In addition to the overall victory, Vollering also won the blue mountain jersey. With four sprint victories, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) secured the red points jersey while her teammate Holmgren took the white U23 jersey, and Lidl-Trek also won the team classification.