Juliette Labous up to 3rd on GC at Giro d’Italia Donne

A deceptively tough stage saw the GC riders, puncheurs and climbing sprinters come to the fore with Juliette Labous taking 11th on the stage and moving up to third on GC.

Starting and finishing in the town of Canelli the day was defined by a mix of flat roads and sharp ascents, with the majority of climbing in the second half of the day. Due to that a few early attackers were able to break free and build up an advantage but with onto the main ascent things were brought back together. Working well as a group the team helped to set tempo, and over the top Francesca Barale and Labous managed to force a split but things regrouped once more.

Esmée Peperkamp then set a good tempo, with Labous taking bonus seconds through the intermediate point, as Barale and Peperkamp then kept the pace high going onto the last main climb of the day. Labous immediately hit the front and strung things out, before Van Vleuten made her stage winning move. Over the top of the ascent, Labous was in a promising group of around seven riders but despite her best attempts to stir things up, no one else really wanted to contribute and a larger group returned. On the short but steep climb to the line, Labous dug deep and took 11th place on the stage. Due to an unfortunate crash for yesterday’s stage winner Niedermaier, Labous now moves into third place on GC with three days of racing to go.

Speaking after the finish Labous said: “We wanted to make everyone tired. Yesterday was a really hard day but I felt good today so we wanted to try and drop others so we could get onto the podium. We also wanted to try and get Megan and Franzi in the break but there were a lot of attacks and nothing could get away. The girls positioned me onto the climb perfectly then we set a very hard pace with Esmée and Francesca and managed to drop quite some people. We did the downhill full gas to put some pressure on others. I then took took the bonus seconds which could be really helpful for the final GC. We had the plan to attack the last climb so I went full, but then Annemiek countered me, so it was really hard. On the top it was actually quite a good situation with Ewers dropped but everything came back together. I think mentally it’s a good sign though. In the final a group came back and it was hard to position, so I actually lost a bit of time on the climb, but didn’t lose anything on the GC really. I’m really happy and looking forward to the next days where we will keep fighting to stay on the podium and maybe even get a better spot. I’m happy with today, it was some super work from everyone and a really nice day as a team.”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Kelvin Dekker continued: “It’s already been a hard Giro and we thought everyone in the bunch might have been craving an easy day, but we know one of our strengths is hard racing. So we made a plan to try and make a hard race. We tried to put Megan and Franziska in the break to help later but they couldn’t get away, so we went full on the climb in the middle, with the idea of making the day as hard as possible – especially with a punchy finish like this which isn’t Juliette’s specialty. The team did a super job setting a pace and I think on top there were only around 35 riders left in the peloton. We also wanted to keep the pace up on the descent so Francesca created a gap there with Juliette. It didn’t work out, but again we kept the pace high and Juliette picked up some bonus, which again showed how focused we were. On the last climb, Esmée led us in and Francesca did a pull before Juliette went full. We dropped Ewers who was our biggest competitor for the podium at that moment but with a lack of cooperation in Juliette’s group she came back. In the end Juliette did a good finish to take 11th. I think we can be happy with that, how we raced, full commitment to the attacking plan and gained some seconds on our direct competitors. Juliette moves up to third now, not in a way we wanted to do with Niedermaier crashing out and we all hope she’s okay. We’re looking ahead to the next days with good spirits.”