<\/p>\n
With Reusser dropped towards the finale, the two found an alliance of circumstance, as both had also realized they could not gain time on the road. But in the finale, it was the FDJ rider who sprinted to victory in a group of four.<\/p>\n
“All in all, though, it was a beautiful day, where we raced with everything we had.\u201d The lead of van der Breggen has been narrowed to 1 minute exactly, but one of the most dangerous stages of the race has been ticked down.<\/p>\n
Anna van der Breggen saves the race lead<\/p>\n
Van der Breggen in the meantime maintained the Maglia Rosa on the brutal day, hanging on well against her rivals. \u201cThe level in women\u2019s cycling has gone up, the differences have narrowed. You can be one of the best in one race, but if you are not in top form afterwards, you barely make the top ten in the next race \u2013 or maybe not even that. It took me a while to get back to this level.\u201d<\/p>\n
At age 36, the Dutchwoman remains at the top, and with a level superior to what she had in her pre-retirement years – she initially retired at the end of 2021, before making a return in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I am better now than in the years before I stopped. That is very motivating. I am happy to be back, but I also have to compete against a young generation that is doing very well too. I am happy to wear the pink jersey as one of the oldest riders here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Age an advantage for van der Breggen\u00a0<\/p>\n
With age comes experience and also endurance. A 146-kilometer stage in the midst of the mountains is a brutal feat, with almost 3500 meters of climbing and a peloton full of ‘sharks’ hunting her race lead. The Colle delle Finestre still lays ahead, but in the Dolomites, she passed the test with a perfect grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mix of many things, I think. I\u2019ve also changed a bit in terms of training style. It helps that I\u2019m a bit older and have more experience, but I can also handle longer training sessions better. Mentally, too. In that respect, experience is an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are four stages remaining, the next two mostly flat in which it will be possible to recover from today’s efforts. \u201cWhen you\u2019re young you have other advantages, but that\u2019s behind me. You have to make do with what you have and who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Reusser dropped towards the finale, the two found an alliance of circumstance, as both had also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[22238,64,63,784,22235,340948,85],"class_list":["post-714304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-anna-van-der-breggen","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-demi-vollering","tag-giro-ditalia-women","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}