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Van der Breggen, Vollering, Niedermaier and Holmgren are well ahead, but it’s almost certain that Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black will get back on over the top, they’re only 20 seconds behind.
Van der Breggen goes to the front, out of the saddle she takes control of the group, with just 2km to the top of the climb.
It wasn’t Trinca Colonel who took the bonus at the intermediate sprint, it was Vollering.
Niedermaier is now on the front, Van der Breggen on the back of the quartet. Niedermaier is looking very strong and in control, the German rider on the German Canyon-Sram team.
Trinca Colonel is quickly caught and straight out of the back. Four riders lead, but, as we’ve seen, the 16.3km from the top is easily enough for the entire race scenario to change.
On the steep lower ramps of the Costa climb Vollering goes hard, Niedermaier follows with Holmgren and Van der Breggen.
20km to go
Up hill again, onto the Costa climb, with Trinca Colonel still 40 seconds up the road. She’ll take the maximum six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in 500m.
Dickson leads the chase
Trinca Colonel crosses the finish line in Santo Stefano di Cadore 36, seconds ahead of the chasing group.
23.2km to go.
Lore De Schepper (AG Insurance Soudal) gets to the front and attacks. Cavallar takes control of the chase, bringing De Schepper back.
And once again Reusser’s group gets back on, Dickson going to the front and to work.
Trinca Colonel has a good gap here and Van der Breggen is forced to lead the chase, with Longo Borghini, Vollering, Niedermaier and Holmgren on her wheel. And now they knock the pace off, allowing Trinca Colonel to increase her lead to 32 seconds.
Trinca Colonel started the day in fifth place overall, only 1.31 behind Van der Breggen’ss lead.
30km to go
Trinca Colonel has attacked on the descent and gained a gap. She might have been better advised to keep that car up her sleeve until the next tie round, but she still may stay away.
Through the village of Costalta and this is the final technical section of the descent. This will be ridden again, 8km from the finish.
The pace has really dropped at the front and the Reusser group is about to regain contact.
There are some real heroic rides out there, Nadia Gontova and Lauren Dickson are certainly two.
Dickson is back on the front working for Vollering. Remember, Dickson wasn’t even racing bikes two-and-a-half years ago.
Vollering leads an expanded front group on the plateau after the top of the climb, the descent begins shortly.
Longo Borghini is one of the riders to have caught that group. Reusser, however, is almost a minute behind.
The shallow descent will help Cavallar stay in contact, we saw on the last downhill that she struggles a little, but if she can stay in she can help Van der Breggen.
The ascent of Costa might be full of hairpins, but the descent isn’t technical, partly because it’s so shallow, just an average of -2.7%, including a plateau.
Vollering is nailing this over the summit, but the group remains intact.
Longo Borghini is one of the great descenders, so may get back on. Reusser, though is 40 seconds back.
Dickson has been dropped so it’s Vollering taking up the pace on the front of the group, Van der Breggen is still there as is Holmgren, Niedermaier and Cavallar.
40 km to go
Reusser is dropped, or at least preserving her energy, while Longo Borghini is doggedly fight her way back to the leaders’ group.
Van der Breggen is back with the front group, led once again by Dickson. Both Longo Borghini and Reusser are off the back of that group. Of course Reusser is another rider whose spring has been disrupted by injury.
All change. Dickson drops back the 10 seconds from the front and paces team mate Vollering. This ups the pace and Van der Breggen is dropped with Reusser.
Vollering still leads, while Bunel has been caught from the breakaway.
Best young rider, Isabella Holmgren was dropped with Longo Borghini, but her Lidl-Trek team mate, Niamh Fisher-Black is still with Vollering.
Attack from Vollering on the climb. Her group had swollen very quickly as the pace dropped, but it’ll thin now with the European champion on the front.
Longo Borghini is struggling with these attacks, though it must be remembered that she lost a chunk of the spring to illness.
Van der Breggen leads the favourites’ group which is less than 20 seconds behind the leaders and has thinned out considerably.
Trinca Colonel and Gontova are together, just off the back of the Dickson group.
At the bottom of the climb and the favourites’ group is quite large, though Trinca Colonel has got off the front and is trying to catch the break which has re-formed, including her team mate, Nadia Gontova
At the front Bunel and Dickson are off the front on that decent, but they’re about to hit the next climb.
We’ve joined the closing loop, but it’s straight uphill for the climb to Costa. This is a 3rd category ascent, covering 4.3km at average of 8.6%. And yes, they do ride it twice.
The breakaway is splitting on the descent, with Cavallar and Gontova distanced slightly, but the favourites are closing in very quickly.
The favourites picked up some of the dropped breakaway riders on the descent, so that group is swelling as the deficit to the breakaway group drops below one minute.
50km to go
The favourites are on the descent too. It’s around 9km downhill, with a plateau in the middle. Technical again at the bottom, they start the next climb 43km from the line.
Dickson takes maximum points at the top of the Passo di Sant’Antonio and the break take a lead of 1.27 onto the descent.
This is quite technical, with plenty of bends and some hairpins too.
Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-Alula-Jayco) regains contact with the favourites, as does Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal).
Meanwhile Žigart’s team mate, Benito is dropped from the leading group.
Closing on on the top of the climb and the favourites’ group has reformed a little and is back to 11 riders.
At the front Bunel is beginning to struggle, while Dickson still grinds on on the front.
Seems FDJ are riding two races, one at the front and one in the favourites’ group, where Reusser has Movistar team mate, Mareille Meijer on the front.
Vollering goes again and once again the group spilts, Longo Borghini again one of those dropped.
They’re back on and the favourites’ group contains 11 riders.
Vollering, Vallieres, Van der Breggen, Reusser, Trinca Colonel, Longo Borghini, Fisher-Black and Holmgren (Lidl-Trek), Neidermaier too. but not for long.
Vollering goes to the front of a reduced favourites’ group, Longo Borghini is out the back and desperately trying to get bacon with with World Champion, Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly).
Vollering and Reusser were with Antonia Niedermaier too, but Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) towed Van der Breggenback to the front.
A huge attack from Marlen Reusser in the favourites’ group. She’s hugely strong but could be firing too many bullets here.
Vollering catches her, but Van der Breggen is distanced.
Just five riders in the leading group, Dickson, Cavallar, Benito, Gontova and Marion Bunel.
Now FDJ send Célia Gery off the front of the favourites’ group. She began the day 4.28 behind Van der Breggen.
While her team mate, Van Agt is banging away at the front of the GC group, Dickson is on the front of the break, which down to just a handful of riders now. Van der Breggen will be relieved Cavallar is still there.
With Van der Breggen’s group is down to only 17 riders. They’re at 1.52, so Lauren Dickson is still the virtual maglia rosa in the road.
The break is starting to fall apart on the climb, but Van der Breggen’s group really have taken chunks out of their advantage, it’s way under two minutes now, Eva van Agt (FDJ United-SUEZ) pulling very hard.
The gap is already coming down, it’s just a touch above three minutes.
Amber Kraak has been off the front for a while, but now the FDJ United-SUEZ rider is back in the bunch she’s taken over at the front of the peloton.
On the very lowest slopes of the climb the breakaway are 3.18 ahead.
60km to go
We’re onto the climb now. At 7.5km, Passo di San’Antonio is shorter than the Tre Croci, but is steeper, averaging of 8.4%. The route takes the riders through the woods, all the way to the top.
The race has been following the Ansiei river for a while now, but will reach the bottom of the Passo di Sant’Antonio in the village of Auronzo di Cadore. There they turn left off the main road and start climbing.
70km to go
Caroline Andersson won the maximum points at the top of the Passo Tre Croci, while Van der Breggen’s favourites’ group remains 3.28 behind the day’s breakaway.
There’s still a fair bt of descending to go, the next climb begins with 61km to go.
80km to go
The breakaway’s lead over the Van der Breggen group has increased to 3.20, while we have no information on the chasing group.
Cavllar was a left field signing for SD Worx this year, joining after two years with Arkea-B&B Hotels where she won the Alpes Gresivaudan Classic and performed very well in other mountainous races.
A former rower, she represented Austria athe Tokyo Olympics.
The Van der Breggen group are now less than three minutes behind the leaders, but what a day it is with such a group of hitters up the road.
Both Dickson and Cavallar came to the sport late.
Dickson a former runner who joined FDJ this year, aged 25.
The group of four, which had been a steady minute behind the leaders, has splintered on the climb and onto the descent, with the four women spread about 40 seconds on the road.
One of them is Picnic-PostNL’s former British champion, Pfeiffer Georgi.
Over the top of the Tre Croci and the gaps are unlikely to change too much on the descent. It’ll be fast as it’s not too technical, with few hairpins, though it is long, almost 30km.
90km to go
Almost at the top of the Passo Tre Croci and the breakaway’s advantage has tumbled down to only 3.21.
On the climb the gap has dropped to 4.05, with SD Worx and Movistar lead ing the bunch.
Movistar started the day with Marlen Reusser second place and while they have Mareille Meijer in the leading group, she is 22.04 down. The Spanish squad will need to work to salvage Reusser’s GC.
There’s been some confusion in the information coming from on the ground. The race is on the the first major climb of the day.
The Passo Tre Croci is 8km in length with a fairly even gradient of 7.3% and by the time they reach the top they’ll be over 1800m so the altitude could be an issue for some.
In theory, now the breakaway is the GC group, but we’ll call them the breakaway.
95km to go
The breakaway are now on the first 1st category climb, the Passo Tre Croci and lead the GC group by 4.55.
Of the breakaway the following riders started the day within five minutes of Van der Breggen’s overall lead.
Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-SUEZ) @ 1.38,
Nadia Gontova (Liv-Alula-Jayco) @ 2.44,
Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime) @ 2.53,
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-Sram) @2.44,
Mie Bjørdal Ottestad (UNO=X Mobility) @ 2.57,
Mereia Bentio (AG Insurance-Soudal) @3.22,
Viktória Chladaňová (Visma-Lease a Bike) @3.55
Maya Kingma (Aromitalia Vaiano) @4.27 and
Emilie Morier (ST Michel-Preference homes-Auber93) @4.49.
After her spectacular win yesterday Anna van der Breggen was certainly in reflective mood.
“The road to victory is not always immediate,” she said.
As it stands the Dickson group lead the race, a second group of four are a minute behind, while the Van der Breggen group are at 2.30.
Who blinks first?
100km to go
The clever thing SD Worx have done is allow Valentina Cavallar into the leading group. the Austrian is 14th on GC, 2.53 behind team mate Van der Breggen and 1.15 behind Dickson.
This gives FDJ and SD Worx a fascinating strategic decision to make; do they allow their second ranaked riders to fight for the race win? Do they let the jersey ride up the road?
The group at the front consists of around 30 riders, including Lauren Dickson, a FDJ United-SUEZ team mate of Demi Vollering. The British rider started the day 1.38 behind Van der Breggen, in sixth place.
Having her in the break puts hige pressure on Van der Breggen and her SD Worx squad.
We’re not yet sure whether she has been dropped or whether a huge breakaway has been allowed to form.
Anna van der Breggen is onto something in the leading part of the peloton, instead the maglia rosa is 55 seconds behind, with a group of around 30 at the front.
Isabella Holmgren was the first of the Lidl-Trek riders home yesterday. and is the best young rider in this year’s race.
The Canadian rider is “nervous but excited” about her GC role.
130km to go
Still all together as we approach the top of the unclassified climb. It’s almost 30km from the top unit they reach the bottom of the Passo Tre Croci and, while it’s a gentle false flat, it could be the perfect place for a break to go clear.
But what about yesterday, the stage 4 time trial certainly rearranged the general classification
Visma-Lease a Bike are on the front of the bunch. They’ll be looking to the ir young French climber, Marion Bunel for a big day. She put time into Van der Breggen on the final day of the Vuelta Femenina, on the slopes of l’Angliru. There’s nothing quite so brutal today, though.
After such a tumultuous day yesterday, who’s wearing which jersey?
Major shake-up to overall standings after tough uphill TT with big time gaps.
We’re at the base of PIeve di Cadore with a complete peloton.
First up is the unclassified climb to Pieve di Cadore is 5km at 5.4%. We’ll be there in just over 10km.
The first categorised climb is Passo Tre Croci is the day’s first climb, but that begins in Cortina d’Ampezzo after 48.3km, but the riders will have climbed over 900m by then.
Here we go, the attacks have started. There’ll many trying to get away for the chance of victory or for the breakaway’s sake, but Van der Breggen’s GC rivals might want to pressure her and the SD Worx-Protime team, weakened by the loss of two riders. They start with only five in total, remember.
The start town of Longarone has hosted four starts of the men’s Giro d’Italia, but the town has a tragic past. In 1963 the village was destroyed in the Vajont Dam disaster and almost 2,000 people were killed.
The stage is a proper beast, starting with two 1st category climbs before two ascents of the same 3rd category climb. The Passo Trio Croci comes first, the Passo di Sant’Antonio next, then a loop including the double ascent of the Costa climb.
Here we go then, we’re uphill from the line today, though only after 6.4km of neutral.
A maximum forecast temperature of 21º today, and while there’ll be some sunshine, there’s a weather alert for storms too. Anything could happen!
Race leader, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) heads to sign on ahead of the stage.
Barbara Malcotti is Human Powered Health’s climbing hope for today’s stage, but first some stretching.
They’re in Longarone for today’s stage, and on the cards is 146km to Santo Stefano di Cadore. We’re still in north eastern Italy, in the Alps, east of Bolzano. We’ll pass through the ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Another GC shake-up expected on mountainous day with 3,400 metres of elevation.
Niamg Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) isn’t the only rider warming up before the stage.
While people are rightly looking at Saturday’s eighth stage and its iconic climbs, with 3,330m of vertical ascent, today has more climbing than any other stage this week. We roll out at 12:55CET.
Good morning, and welcome again to the Cyclingnews coverage of stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia Women.