The young Canadian showed her strength on the shortened stage eight of the Giro d'Italia Women
Fans, team buses and media waited with anticipation at the summit of the Sestriere, but the hum of the race helicopter never came. The finish line and podium were left desolate, awaiting a showdown between the world’s best riders which no one there would end up seeing. There were many different possibilities and predictions made about how the queen stage of the Giro d’Italia Women would play out, but this was not one of them.
The news came suddenly and late, when the peloton was already on the lower slopes of the 17.3-kilometer climb: there was dangerous snowfall on the top of the Finestre and the roads were not clear to pass. A new finish line of the stage would be in place, set at one kilometer before the original GPM sprint point. Sports directors radioed the information as quickly as possible to their general classification riders who were already battling it out on the brutally-steep slopes, and then there was only one option remaining: to give everything they had.
It was an all-out effort to the summit for the front group on the climb, which was quickly whittled down until there were only four riders remaining in front. Lidl-Trek’s Isabella Holmgren was one of them, holding her own amongst the strongest climbers in this race at just 21 years old. The young Canadian dug deep on the gravel to stay close to the wheels of her rivals, while also building her lead up even further in the white jersey competition for the best young rider. Behind her, Niamh Fisher-Black fought valiantly too, staying inside the top-10 throughout the entirety of the Finestre ascent.
When the makeshift finish line came into view, Holmgren timed her sprint well, staying calm and showing her skill as she put power down on the final brutal inclines despite the rough road surface. In the end, after one of the most bizarre and challenging days of the Giro d’Italia Women, Holmgren finished in second place on the shortened Finestre stage, defending her maglia bianca and fourth place on the general classification. Fisher-Black came in ninth and now sits in eighth place overall.
There is still one more day to go in this Giro with climbs that could alter the overall GC, and Lidl-Trek can take confidence from how their young climbers performed under pressure on stage eight.
Photo: Dan King
In Bella's words
It was a good day and the team did a really good job. We had Lucinda in the early break, and Fleur, Spratty and Barzi really helped me to a good position going into Finestre. It was a tough, hard climb but it was good. We knew going into the gravel that it was going to be shortened, so only about six kilometers from the eventual finish. At that point, I knew I had to give it my all until the new finsh line. I was dropped a little bit and the pace was a bit slower so I attacked when I got back on because I knew it was better to give it my everything given that the finish line was a lot closer.
I think tomorrow is going to be a super tough day because a lot of teams really have to do everything so they can move up in GC. It’s going to be hard with the climb but that’s still a long way from the finish so I think it will make quite an interesting race. After today, everything could happen really, so we’ll see how it plays out.
