The Spanish stage racing block has only just wrapped up, but the Women’s WorldTour quickly resumes with the second biggest stage race of the year, the Giro d’Italia Women, which starts Saturday, May 30 and continues through to Sunday, June 7.
This year, the nine-stage Giro has moved from July to June, finally put an end to its unfortunate clash with the men’s Tour de France, and instead tacking onto the end of the men’s Giro to make a four-week festival of Italian Grand Tour racing.
As well as making for better timing for viewers and hopefully allowing for more attention on the women’s Giro, the move has opened up the Corsa Rosa to more riders. Previously, the short gap between the Giro and the Tour de France Femmes discouraged most riders from targeting both, but this year, it’s perfectly possible for riders to peak for both.
It’s for this reason that we’re going to see women’s cycling’s biggest star, Demi Vollering, back in action at the Giro for the first time in half a decade, and hoping to complete her Grand Tour set by winning the famous maglia rosa. But with three-time champion Elisa Longo Borghini in action, as well as a supremely strong field of GC contenders including Marion Bunel, Marlen Reusser and Anna van der Breggen, this won’t be an easy victory for Vollering – in fact, the race looks primed for one of its biggest GC battles in recent history.
This year’s Giro d’Italia Women route is also set to be one of the toughest yet, headlined by a huge, iconic climb: the Colle delle Finestre. Coming on stage 8, the race will complete the same finale as the 2025 men’s Giro, riding over the Colle delle Finestre, including its gravel peak, and then finishing at Sestriere. Never raced in the women’s Giro before, this will be a big moment for the race, and the decisive day of the GC battle.
There are of course also other key stages, such as the uphill time trial, which could be make or break in the battle for the maglia rosa, so after running our eye over the gamut here are our picks for this year’s Giro GC contenders.
Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez)
Demi Vollering has not ridden the Giro d’Italia since 2021, and only twice in her career, but despite her five-year absence from this race, Vollering will return to Italy as a huge favourite for the pink jersey this year. Usually skipping the Giro due to its proximity with the Tour, the peloton’s pre-eminent GC rider has won practically every other stage race on the calendar, including the Tour and two Vueltas, and has a chance to add the pink jersey to her trophy cabinet this year. She made it clear that this would be a big goal in 2026, and if her results so far are anything to go off – seven wins from 11 race days – she’s coming to this race in very good form and with very high motivation.
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The last time Vollering rode the Giro in 2021 she finished third overall, behind winning teammate at the time Anna van der Breggen, and there’s little reason to think that she won’t be the best climber in this year’s race, training at altitude specifically for this block. Without her big yellow jersey rival Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in Italy, Vollering will be seeing this as an opportunity to take a big Grand Tour win, and show her strength before the Tour, too.
Her support team isn’t quite as stacked as it will be in August, with superdomestiques Juliette Berthet and Évita Muzic sitting the Giro out after racing for their own results over the Spanish block, but she can still count on really strong FDJ riders like Elise Chabbey, Amber Kraak and Lauren Dickson. The French team has been fantastic already this year, and could take a massive overall win at the Giro.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)
Elisa Longo Borghini has come to dominate the Giro d’Italia Women in recent years, almost in the vein of Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen, and she returns this year chasing her fourth overall title. She’s had a slightly disrupted 2026 so far, with a lingering flu ruling her out of Milan-San Remo and affecting her Classics performances. She skipped the Ardennes and the Spanish block, meaning she hasn’t race since Flanders, so she will start the Giro as slightly an unknown quantity.
However, the lack of racing is hardly the concern it used to be, with GC riders tending much more towards training and altitude camps ahead of big goals, and that’s what Longo Borghini has been doing, training on Teide. Though she will undoubtedly arrive as a big favourite, this year’s course might be the hardest Longo Borghini has faced, given the size of the climbing challenge on the Colle delle Finestre. What’s more, the Italian has often taken time in a time trial, and this year’s Giro TT is mainly uphill, so it is not quite as prime for her to make gains.
And of course, she will be up against a huge challenger in Vollering. But with three pink jerseys in her trophy cabinet, and this her main goal of the season – whilst Vollering also thinks about the Tour – Longo Borghini will be hoping her Giro expertise and experience gives her an upper hand this June.
Marlen Reusser (Movistar)
Marlen Reusser finished second overall at the Giro last year – nearly winning it – so obviously has to be on this list, but it’s very difficult to estimate what kind of shape she’s bringing to Italy. The Swiss rider hasn’t race since the Tour of Flanders where she crashed and suffered a fractured vertebra, thus missing what was due to be her biggest goal of the spring, the Vuelta Femenina. However, she’s been back training recently and is on Movistar’s provisional start list for the Giro, so we’re expecting to see her back.
With so little racing under her belt recently – we’re not sure what her training has looked like either – Reusser has probably had to adjust her expectations for the Giro, and coming straight back to the podium is almost certainly too big of an ask, but will she be just getting back to a good level, or challenging for the top 10? Will she even make it through the week? How is her back? These questions are all difficult to answer right now, and perhaps she doesn’t even have answers herself, so the truth is we’ll have to see. It does seem unlikely that she’ll be part of the big Longo Borghini vs Vollering battle that we’re expecting, but Reusser is super strong, so if she’s feeling good, she could still take a good solid overall result.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)
Anna van der Breggen won the Giro d’Italia four times when she was at her peak, and though she hasn’t quite returned to that level since coming back from a brief retirement, she is still one of the best climbers in the bunch, especially when it comes to the really high mountains. She proved that at La Vuelta, winning atop Las Praeres and coming fifth on the Angliru to claim second overall. It feels like she’s coming into this Giro with her best GC form since her return to racing.
It will be a really big challenge for her to match Vollering and Longo Borghini, and the general level of the peloton definitely has gone up since she was dominating the Giro, but her previous success in this race will count for a lot. She won’t be intimdated by the challenges that lie ahead, nor the high mountain of the Finestre. The overall win might be a big ask, but Van der Breggen should certainly be hoping to win a stage and aim at the final podium, although a top five is the target her team outlined in its pre-Giro release.
Van der Breggen will have Mikayla Harvey and Valentina Cavallar on the squad to help her in the mountains, and while her rivals may have been clear about where there objectives lie Van der Breggen doesn’t appear to feel the need to choose. “I hope to ride a good Giro. Whether it serves as preparation for the Tour de France? One does not rule out the other,” said Van der Breggen.
Marion Bunel and Viktória Chladoňová (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Visma-Lease a Bike are sending an insanely strong team to the Giro, even without Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and they have at least three riders who could aim for the top 10. Marion Bunel, third overall at the Vuelta, will probably be their designated leader, and the Frenchwoman is coming into the GC shape she’s been promising for a long time. She also has a really big weapon in her arsenal in that she won the stage and the overall of the Tour de l’Avenir when it finished atop the Colle delle Finestre, so we know the race’s decisive climb suits her, and she knows what it’s like to race it. After her Vuelta podium, she’ll be dreaming of matching that here.
But she’s not Visma’s only option. Viktória Chladoňová has had a quiet start to this year after a very impressive 2025, but is really growing as an elite rider and climber. At only 18, she finished 16th overall at the Giro already last year, and can certainly aim for similar this year, if freedom allows. And thirdly, Visma can look to Femke de Vries, the 32-year-old who has been extremely strong on the climbs this year, and could be a back-up GC leader or luxury domestique. Whichever role each rider plays, Visma have a lot of cards for this Giro and should hope to finish on the final podium.
Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney won’t be lining up for this year’s Giro, with her sights set firmly on the Tour de France Femmes, and June will be about training for that race.
Instead, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto will be led by former stage winner Antonia Niedermaier, who finished sixth overall in 2024 and fifth overall last year. Still only 23, Niedermaier is a massively talented GC rider who obviously thrives at this race, so though Niewiadoma-Phinney’s name might make the headlines at first, the German is possibly the better contender for a top-five finish, and her recent results suggest she’s in really good form.
Keep an eye on Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig too. She hasn’t won a race since 2024, but looked good at the Vuelta.
Niamh Fisher-Black and Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)
Niamh Fisher-Black skipped the Spanish block so hasn’t been in action since the Ardennes, but will return with a bang at the Giro, a race that’s often treated her well. The Kiwi rider won on a mountaintop finish in 2024, and has regularly shone here, even when riding as a support rider. She should get the chance to lead Lidl-Trek this year, and will be hoping to put together a strong week for a good overall finish. As a pure climber, the climbing-heavy course will surely suit her.
However, Lidl-Trek have another rising star in their team for Italy in Isabella Holmgren, last year’s Tour de l’Avenir winner, and the rider who finished second behind Bunel on the Finestre stage of the 2024 race. So like her French peer, this is another rider who has rare in-race experience of the Giro’s most pivotal mountain, and indeed success there, so she could be a real threat on that stage. The Canadian talent has had a light but very strong racing campaign so far this year, with two top 10s in the Ardennes, and it’s likely that the Giro is one of her biggest goals for the season, so don’t be surprised to see her doing well.
Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal)
AG Insurance-Soudal are another team that were expected to head to the Giro with multiple options, however it has been revealed that one that was anticipated to be among the strongest, Sarah Gigante, isn’t yet ready to return after she broke her femur in training.
AG Insurance, however, can look to Urška Žigart as another very worthy GC option, and her pure climbing abilities should come to the fore particularly on the Colle delle Finestre. She was sixth overall at the Vuelta after looking really good on the Angliru, so should be aiming at another top 10 here. She has a strong support squad too, with Justine Ghekiere and Lore De Schepper both excellent climbing domestiques. Then there is also Mireia Benito who has just proven her form coming into the event with a fourth at Vuelta a Burgos.
Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco)
Monica Trinca Colonel is somehow still quite underrated as a GC rider, but the Liv AlUla Jayco rider has proven herself on multiple occasions now, highlighted by winning the demanding Tour de l’Ardèche last year. After shining in the Giro in 2024 – probably earning herself a transfer from an Italian Continental team to the WorldTour in the process – Trinca Colonel had an unfortunate DNF last year, but will return to lead the Aussie team at her home race. She’s coming off the back of sevent overall at the Vuelta, so is clearly in good form, and should be even more motivated on home roads, so will be a contender for the top 10 if not top five.
Honorable mentions
World champion Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) isn’t really a GC rider as such, but is in really good form at the moment and could definitely be challenging for pink early on.
It was slightly overshadowed by her teammate’s victory atop the Angliru, but Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) had a super strong Vuelta Femenina, finishing ninth overall and will lead the team’s GC ambitions in her home Grand Tour.
Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) is an underrated but talented climber who will be aiming for a top 20 on GC.
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