OFFICIAL Stage 8 Results: Nienke Veenhoven ABANDONS!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Giro d’Italia Women Gamers!
STAGE Grade: B
I rate today’s stage a B. There’s no telling what grade the full stage would have rated, but half of a stage cut down a lot of the spectacle. It’s still a beautiful environment to be having a bike race, there were some minor skirmishes in the second tier of the general classification, and it was kind of surprising that the top four in the GC finished top four in the stage.
Route: 4/5 GC: 2/5 Tactics: 3/5 Sprint: 1/5 Surprises: 3/5
There’s nothing anyone can do about a mudslide. As much as I can’t stand shortened stages, they couldn’t go anywhere from the top of the Colle delle Finestri.
At first I thought: this could benefit Demi Vollering. There’s no valley and possible category 3 climb where Anna van der Breggen could return. On the other hand: all van der Breggen had to do was stay in Vollering’s wheel for 15 kilometers. She could collapse after that, mission accomplished.
It turned out to be a case of the latter.
The race itself was pretty straightforward. FDJ United – SUEZ took to the front, started dropping minor riders, until it was just Vollering, van der Breggen, Isabella Holmgren, and Antonia Niedermaier in the front. Holmgren and Niedermaier are riders I had not expected to see fighting for a podium, but they were here before the stage and they’re still after the stage. A fine ride from both.
The entire way up, all four riders attempted to win the stage. That’s not what I expected from Vollering. The question is: once she knew the stage would end at the top, what was her game plan? What was anyone’s game plan? I will never know, at any rate it was fun to watch. Van der Breggen was impressive in the last kilometer, taking control of the pace. Vollering’s face seemed to show a grimace, the other two looked stoic. Don’t forget: acting as if you’re not hurt is an important skill if you want to win a grand tour.
In the last hairpin, all three riders attacked van der Breggen. Vollering’s sprint was explosive, she got the stage win. The others took second and third, leaving van der Breggen without bonus seconds. Again, I don’t know: was she out of gas, or was she careless? Those bonus seconds could matter.
Behind those four came the two big surprises of the day. Femke de Vries was the best of the rest. Behind her, and gaining on her, was Marlen Reusser. She impressed me the most today. Dropped as soon as the peloton began climbing, she waved off her teammates who wanted to help. Reusser, of course, recovering from two crashes. I thought she was out. But she battled her way back to sixth on the stage, just three seconds behind de Vries. As we say in Detroit: all grit.
Chantal Pegolo, who sprinted to that fantastic third place finish on Friday, was awarded the combattività prize. Rightly so, what a hero. She finished 118th today. Only three riders finished behind her. There were fourteen (!) riders who did not finish.
Charlotte Kool was the last rider to finish. How close was she to the time limit? These things matter to me. Unfortunately, the time limit was not shown in the results. And the regolamento for the women’s Giro are nowhere to be found. In stage 5 the time limit was 23%. Applying that to Vollering’s winning time today, Kool had 34 minutes and 5 seconds to finish. Her time? Just under 32 minutes.
The reason I bring that up is that the riders who DNF’s definitely did not finish outside the time limit. There were two minutes left on the clock, at least one of them should have finished in that time. Three riders probably pulled the plug because why not: Georgia Baker, Linda Zanetti, and Nienke Veenhoven. With more climbing on Sunday, they had nothing to ride for on Sunday.
All the others? These are the riders I wrote about earlier this week. Half of Team Mendelspeck – E-Work; three riders with Aromitalia Vaiano; two Isolmant – Premac – Vittoria riders. And so on.
Eva van Agt did finish today. She was nowhere to be seen, of course. Vollering didn’t need her today. Van Agt finished 100th, just over 25 minutes behind. The race was so short and chaotic that there weren’t even any grupettos up the mountain. Everyone just spread out, completing the stage at their own pace.
Watch the final kilometers HERE.
Watch the TNT Sports highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
All three teams had selected Nienke Veenhoven, so her abandon (or anything she did) had no impact on our game.
After Friday’s sprint stage, we return to bizarro world — the traditional sprinter’s Team Amalia winning the GC stages. Most points from the stage, most points overall, and ten riders in the Top-25. They jump to second place. Behind them, Team Charles had most points from classifications and they hold on to first. Team Ansel were behind them, dropping to third.
Team Amalia have a 50-point (!) lead in the Final Standings bonus points, so they are in fact in the virtual lead of our game. Assuming that Elisa Balsamo is going to be a non-factor on Sunday, Team Charles will have to hope for a miracle from Marion Bunel or Mavi García; whereas Team Amalia just have to rely on points from Mireia Benito, Lauren Dickson, and Monica Trinca Colonel. Keep an eye on those riders on Sunday.
Sunday’s stage now becomes a lot more unpredictable. There are two schools of thought. “Van der Breggen is unbreakable, the stage will go to a who-dares-wins kind of rider in a breakaway.” Possible. But who? Almost all candidates for that kind of win are threats in the general classification. Let’s say Elisa Longo Borghini attacks. Vollering, thinking she can’t break van der Breggen, will sit up. Van der Breggen will counter. No surprise win for Longo Borghini.
I don’t subscribe to that school. I’m in the other camp. The first climb is 8.7 kilometers at 9.5%. It’s a long way from there to the finish, but Vollering has to try. Attack until van der Breggen breaks. Attack, slow down, attack, slow down. Until she breaks. Van der Breggen can keep up with Vollering all day if she wants to, but not if Vollering uses her explosive power — like she did to win today’s stage. That acceleration was massive. Try that three times on a category 1 climb, van der Breggen will crack.
So I believe Vollering will win the stage. I also believe she can’t break van der Breggen. Even the third climb of the day is too far from the finish line to make a difference.
Unless FDJ can come up with some sort of master plan to help Vollering in the valley between Montoso and Colletta di Paesana, van der Breggen will win her fifth Giro d’Italia Women.
Standings after stage 8:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Charles* |
1557 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Amalia* |
1512 |
3 |
1 |
|
3 |
Team Ansel* |
1508 |
2 |
-1 |
Standings after stage 8 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Charlotte |
1728 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Kent |
1640 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Charles* |
1557 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Amalia* |
1512 |
6 |
2 |
|
5 |
Team Ansel* |
1508 |
4 |
-1 |
|
6 |
Team Laurens |
1483 |
5 |
-1 |
|
7 |
Team Kate |
1401 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Corsa |
1356 |
9 |
1 |
|
9 |
Team Ellie |
1342 |
8 |
-1 |
|
10 |
Team Kari |
1264 |
10 |
0 |
|
11 |
Team Julie |
1230 |
11 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 8:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
PINK JERSEY |
PURPLE JERSEY |
BLUE JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
189 |
42 |
6 |
10 |
0 |
58 |
247 |
1265 |
1512 |
|
Team Ansel* |
138 |
34 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
56 |
194 |
1314 |
1508 |
|
Team Charles* |
155 |
42 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
64 |
219 |
1338 |
1557 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 8 (including adults):
|
Team Amalia* |
189 |
42 |
6 |
10 |
0 |
58 |
247 |
1265 |
1512 |
|
Team Ansel* |
138 |
34 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
56 |
194 |
1314 |
1508 |
|
Team Charles* |
155 |
42 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
64 |
219 |
1338 |
1557 |
|
Team Charlotte |
210 |
54 |
8 |
12 |
7 |
81 |
291 |
1437 |
1728 |
|
Team Corsa |
166 |
42 |
7 |
9 |
0 |
58 |
224 |
1132 |
1356 |
|
Team Ellie |
142 |
35 |
7 |
12 |
7 |
61 |
203 |
1139 |
1342 |
|
Team Julie |
123 |
37 |
6 |
9 |
2 |
54 |
177 |
1053 |
1230 |
|
Team Kari |
125 |
32 |
7 |
9 |
0 |
48 |
173 |
1091 |
1264 |
|
Team Kate |
154 |
40 |
7 |
9 |
0 |
56 |
210 |
1191 |
1401 |
|
Team Kent |
178 |
42 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
64 |
242 |
1398 |
1640 |
|
Team Laurens |
138 |
34 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
56 |
194 |
1289 |
1483 |
-Laurens.