Anna van der Breggen wins Giro d’Italia Donne, Coryn Rivera takes final stage victory

Coryn Rivera (Team DSM) won the final stage of the Giro d’Italia Donne by a tiny margin over Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) in a hotly contested sprint from a breakaway. Meanwhile, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx) wrapped up a commanding overall victory with fourth place on the final stage.

Rivera, Deignan and van der Breggen were part of a very strong five-rider group, which also included Lucinda Brand and Elise Chabbey, that burst clear on the opening climb of the 113km stage.

Rivera dedicated the win to her father, who died with COVID-19 earlier this year, and her fiancé.

“That was for my dad and also it’s my fiancé’s birthday and I’m not home so there were my two guys,” Rivera said. “I feel really strong and I had a lot of motivation. I had an angel on my shoulder today.”

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The move was sparked by Brand going for points in the mountains classification, which the Dutchwoman had a small lead in at the start of the day. The five riders came together on the descent of the climb and forged a small advantage over the peloton behind.

Though they never had much more than two minutes on the pack, the power within the five-rider group was just enough to hold them off – despite several teams looking for a sprint finish.

After mopping up some mountains points, Brand was dropped from the escape group inside the final 10 kilometers. Rivera, Deignan, and Chabbey shared the work in the break as they all looked for their first individual stage wins of the race, while van der Breggen enjoyed the ride on the back, safe in the knowledge that she didn’t need the break to succeed.

Deignan led the sprint around the final left-hand corner and looked like she would be able to hold the lead but a surging Rivera pipped her just on the line. Van der Breggen finished three seconds later with her arms aloft in celebration of a dominant overall win.

The GC competition saw a full sweep of the podium spots by the SD Worx team. Van der Bregeen won the race by 1:43 over Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, with Demi Vollering in third at 3:25. Deignan is the first non-SD Worx rider on the overall classification in fourth place, at more than six minutes back.