Liane Lippert cemented her comeback with a stage win on the sixth day of the Giro d’Italia Women. The former German champion suffered a stress fracture in her hip during the offseason and has had to ease her way back into racing. She missed most of the spring, only returning to the peloton for the Vuelta a España Femenina in April. On Friday the Movistar rider announced she’s all the way back by outsprinting her breakaway companions Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), who finished second and third respectively.
Elisa Longo Borghini and Lotte Kopecky left their battle for Saturday. The two finished within the very reduced peloton, with the Lidl-Trek rider holding onto the pink jersey by three seconds ahead of the world champion from SD Worx-Protime. The real fight will be Saturday when the peloton will race Blockhaus not once, but twice.
Stage 6 Top 10
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How it happened
- With the amount of elevation gain on tap during the sixth stage, the peloton wasn’t keen to allow a break, but there also weren’t many riders keen to try their hand away. Teams with GC ambitions were more interested in putting pressure on their rivals by keeping the pace high. With 44 km to go DSM Firmenich-PostNL were the chief instigators, riding for Juliette Labous. The pressure successfully spit a lot of riders out of the bunch on the Penne climb.
- On the descent from Penne, Elise Chabbey crashed, hard, and although she remounted, would eventually finish almost eight minutes down on the day. Four riders who were near her were able to get a bit of a gap from the peloton and in the confusion they rolled off the front. Kopecky momentarily seemed to want to chase, but by 24 km to go the move had gained almost two minutes.
- The break of four was packed with quality riders. Edwards, Lippert, Magnaldi and Ane Santesteban (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) worked well together into the final climb of the stage and towards the finish.
- By the time the race hit the base of the final climb it was clear the day would be a two-race kind of stage. With a gap of 1:50, the breakaway had enough time for the win between the four, while the riders behind would turn their attention to the fight for pink.
- The time gap started to dip as the reduced peloton of climbers hit the climb. Longo Borghini could be seen marking Kopecky, and for good reason: The world champion tried an attack with 2.7 km to go but the pink jersey was on her.
- Longo Borghini tried to then put pressure on Kopecky, but it was a wasted effort and the two were eventually brought back by the group they’d left.
- With Santesteban dispatched from the break, the gap to the (now) three out front dropped to within 30 seconds, but it was enough for the win to go to the move. Lippert was the first to start her sprint, and Edwards couldn’t match the speed of the former German champion. The group was led in by Longo Borghini 21 seconds later.
GC Top 10
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Quote of the Day
I had such a hard start and it means so much to me, this moment. I had time to dream about [the stage win] in the breakaway. It’s for everyone who kept on believing in me in the hard process.
Lippert on winning the sixth stage
What’s next?
Stage 7: Lanciano to Blockhaus (120 km)
Date: Saturday, July 13
Stage type: High mountains
Summary: Ouch.
The queen stage of this year’s Giro ends on the iconic Blockhaus climb, so we know Canyon-SRAM will have flagged this one for themselves (get it? Because the climb is named “stone house” in German, and it’s a German team).
Racing up Blockhaus would be hard enough but the peloton will actually climb it twice. The first ascent tops out at Passo Lanciano, where the peloton will turn down another side of the climb before they circle back to do the climb again, plus some extra.
The first 61 km is rolling with a few short, gradual climbs to get the leg sensations vibing. The first of the two Cat 1 climbs starts 62 km into the stage. The first passage of Blockhaus up to Passo Lanciano is 10.7 km long, averaging 8.5% with a maximum of 14.6%. This in and of itself would be enough to determine the GC, but it’s only the beginning. Because there is more climbing to come, it’s possible riders will be a little more conservative on this ascent. Unless something thinks they can get away and hold it before the second ascent of the full Blockhaus.
Blockhaus, an iconic ascent in the men’s Giro, will be the featured battleground for this year’s pink jersey. The climb is 17.7 km in total and averages 7.8%. It is the highest point of this year’s Giro.
It’s hard to overstate how challenging this stage will be. With two lengthy climbs back to back, some of our favourite GC riders will be out of the picture before we even get to Blockhaus. But once the race reaches the summit a clear winning will emerge.
Originally published on our stage-by-stage preview here.
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