Giro Donne 2022: Juliette Labous soloes to impressive victory on Passo Maniva, Annemiek van Vleuten takes more time

Juliette Labous (Team DSM) soared to an impressive lone victory on the summit of the Passo Maniva at Stage 7 of the 2022 Giro Donne. Labous was the sole survivor from the breakaway, holding off a late charge from the top three in the general classification for the biggest win of her career to-date.

Thanks to strong support from their team-mates, Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) and Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitane) both hoped to a bite out of the lead of the maglia rosa. Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) assertively defended her position, however, before making a late dart for the line and adding six seconds to her overall lead. Despite losing a few seconds to Van Vleuten and Garcia, Marta Cavalli gained the same on Elisa Longo-Borghini and remains comfortable in third place.

The hockey stick-shaped stage set in Lombardy was always likely to reserve all of its excitement for the finale. As such the favourites seemed content to let a large group get away. Not long after the official start was given, mid-way through the first of three complete circuits of the town of Prevalle, a fourteen rider move slipped the reins of the peloton. Containing riders representing most of the teams in the race, they had a range of reasons to cooperate. Using the easier part of the course to their advantage, the group worked quickly to begin building up the size of lead they would require to have any hope of holding out to the finish.

By the time they headed out of town, towards the mountains, they were already in the ballpark. A five minute lead meant more than 3km of distance between the break and the bunch. Twenty kilometres later, and the gap had grown to nine minutes. Although 11 minutes down the best placed rider in the break, Labous, was beginning to look like a danger.

The bunch certainly seemed to think so. With the road beginning to rise - long before the official start of the climb - riders from Trek-Segafredo and BikeExchange Jayco seized the reins and raised the tempo. The breakers remained committed and were able to respond reasonably well. The full complement of 14 continued their rotations, with few turns skipped, as they resisted the relentless march of the stronger peloton behind. Through the fourth and final intermediate sprint they had averaged 42kph for the stage.

After which things were only going to get harder. As the riders reached foothills of the first (and final) climb, Amalie Lutro (Uno-X Pro Cycling) was the one to light things up. Though the young Norwegian wanted only to put as much in the bank before the gradient became painful, in order to give herself as much room to drift, she managed more than that. On smooth tarmac, and slopes little more than false flat Lutro pressed on in her big chainring. Gripping the drops with all her might she spent several kilometres solo, and eking out almost an minute of advantage before the going got tough.

Through San Colombano, with the climb proper undeniably upon them and hitting a very visible 14%, Lutro had no gear left to go to and began labouring in the pedals. She was overwhelmed first by Cristina Tonnetti (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), and then by other former colleagues from the chasing group. Still they were three minutes to the good and while the favourites had yet to truly start racing, as they were sure to, the catch was far from inevitable.

Labous must have imagined it was likely, however, at least if she didn't do something herself. Seven kilometres from the summit, she said goodbye to all but Georgia Williams (BikeExchange Jayco), and even then was only prepared to tolerate the company of the New Zealander for a short spell.

Over the hardest part of the climb, the Frenchwoman went into time trial mode.

Labous, the highest placed rider in the early breakaway, had always looked the strongest within it. As she powered on alone, she unleashed all that she had been saving, increasing her advantage over everyone on the road - including the favourites. The maglia rosa group halved and halved again, leaving only the strongest.

Van Vleuten had no team-mates with her at all; Garcia had just one, while Cavalli retained the services of Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and (briefly) Emiliar Fahlin, when she fell back from the break. The top three riders in the general classification are also clearly the strongest and they wanted it to be known. First they ditched their remaining companions then began to look at each other.

The games of cat and mouse were all to the good for Labous, who simply had to keep turning the pedals, before taking the final hairpin and completing a memorable victory.

The favourites easing off also allowed Elisa Longo-Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) back in to the fight. The white jersey at once sprang straight to the front and made the final kilometre hard even for the leaders.

As inevitably as cream rises to the top, so Van Vleuten will show she is the strongest. In the sprint for second second, she finally broke Garcia.

Although the big guns were always going to be hard to beat, New Zealand's Fisher-Black was the best of the rest. 5th on the stage carried her to the same spot in the general classification, up from 8th place at the start of the day.

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) 18:14:12s
2. Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) +0:31s
3. Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine) +1:10s
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek Segafredo) +5:19s
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) +5:54s
6. Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange - Jayco) +6:12s
7. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine) +6:22s
8. Silvia Persico (Valcar Travel & Service) +6:33s
9. Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) +8:25s
10. Elise Chabbey (Canyon Sram) +8:30s

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