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The lead-up to the 2023 Giro d’Italia Donne was typically chaotic and Friday’s opening stage was no different. Heavy rain lashed the 4.4 km time trial course in Chianciano Terme, forcing organisers to cancel the stage with 87 riders still to leave the start house.
Italian local Letizia Paternoster (Jayco-AlUla) had the fastest time when the stage was called off, but she won’t wear the pink jersey on stage 2 – all times from the day were nullified and no jerseys were handed out.
It was a thoroughly wet day to kick off the nine-stage WorldTour race, as you can see in the photos below – courtesy of Cor Vos – and the social media posts that follow. And if you haven’t already, you can read more about how it all went down in our report from the day. Let’s hope stage 2 is a much drier affair!
Paternoster on her way to setting the fastest time.Australia’s Ella Simpson, in her first Giro, was one of many riders to crash on the slick roads.Stage favourite Chloe Dygert also took a tumble.Dygert managed to get up and get going fast enough to still finish with the sixth-fastest time … only a second slower than Paternoster!Just great conditions for time-trialling.Defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten had the second-fastest time when the stage was called off. She looks positively thrilled to be out there.Just behind Van Vleuten on the annulled leaderboard was the GOAT, Marianne Vos …… and behind her, Georgia Baker, who excels at short time trials due to her track endurance background.Last-year’s third-place finisher Mavi Garcia crashed as well.Femke Markus took a tumble too.
Race currently stopped (it is wasn't stopped whilst this hail and ear shattering thunder and lightning was going! But now it's "dried up" a bit and restart at 13.30) pic.twitter.com/DoqBN15MIj
Not the ideal condition for a TT at the #GiroDonne ☔️ ⛈. A rain and hail storm is ongoing. Race organizers decided to pause the start of the riders pic.twitter.com/u1tZg51Vth
