Giro Rosa (st. 5)

Basque climber from Movistar Team (+4'51") takes 17th at tough first mountain-top finish in Giro Rosa, dominated by Annemiek van Vleuten (MTS). Patiño finishes 18th, one minute behind team-mate; Gloria Rodríguez abandons.

She was a big pre-race favourite and Annemiek van Vleuten (MTS) took a huge step forward to secure back-to-back overall victories in the Giro Rosa with a superb performance atop the Diga del Cancano, end of stage five over 87km and a finish over 1,900m above sea level.

The Dutchwoman put three minutes on a leading pursuit group which Eider Merino fought hard to be in. The former Spanish champion from the Movistar Team entered an early selection -about 25 riders- at the initial climb to Teglio, alongside Paula Patiño, and stayed into the GC group until the first slopes of the climb with the Colombian. Eider finished 17th, 4’51” behind the winner and just over one minute after the first chase -now just under two minutes off the overall top-ten-, with Patiño, 18th, at 5’56”.

The Giro Rosa will stay into the mountains at Wednesday’s tough ITT stage six, from Chiuro to Teglio, 12km with almost 500m elevation gain which will further reduce the list of candidates for the overall podium. The day’s action will not feature Gloria Rodríguez, whose hip pain since her stage two crash eventually forced her to abandon halfway through today’s race.

— TT start times (Wednesday 10th, all CEST): Gutiérrez 11.03, Biannic 12.15, Jasinska 12.33, Patiño 12.55, Merino 13.06.

Cover picture (c): Velofocus