Giro d’Italia Donne: Trek-Segafredo wins opening TTT, Ruth Winder in pink

American rider Ruth Winder has taken the opening pink jersey of the Giro d’Italia Donne after Trek-Segafredo won the stage one team time trial from Fossano to Cuneo.

Trek-Segafredo was in a drag race with defending champions SD Worx over the 26.7km course in scorching conditions. In the end, it was the American team that had the edge and stopped the clock at 33:40 and won by a slim seven-second margin over the Dutch squad.

Time trial specialist Ellen van Dijk drove the team, which was down to just four riders, through the finishing stretch with Winder surging ahead just as they crossed the line. Italian road and time trial champion Elisa Longo Borghini is leading the team’s GC ambitions and has been placed in a very good position ahead of the mountains as a result of the performance.

Lizzie Deignan, who is targeting stage wins at the race, said the team performance wasn’t technically on point, but it did the job.

“We won the race, but we didn’t have the best technical performance. I was on the limit and in these moments you have to try to communicate,” said Deignan. “There were some points in the line where there was a dramatic change in speed and I was trying to communicate to the car, but they were getting the wrong message so I was frustrated.

“I think, in the end, the main this is that we had a really strong performance. It was maybe not technically the best but it was strong. I think you could see from the camera, I was the fourth woman and I survived and we won, so I’m really happy.”

#GiroDonne
A tired but happy team! @RuthWinder will be in the pink jersey (her second time!) pic.twitter.com/G4R3Z5t6wK

— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) July 2, 2021

This is the second time that Winder has worn pink at the Giro d’Italia Donne [known as the Giro Rosa at the time]. She took the leader’s jersey at the 2018 race after an impressive solo victory to Omegna.

“We didn’t even know the times. I felt like we were going pretty fast but honestly, it’s not really been something that I was thinking about, the pink jersey,” she said after the stage. “I’m really excited for the whole team, we did a fast ride and we’re really happy to win. I still feel a bit out of it. It was really hard so I’m super tired from that.

Alé BTC-Ljubljana put in a stellar ride to finish with the third quickest time, stopping the clock at 34:20, with Canyon-SRAM finishing a further six seconds back.

Stage 2

After opening with a team time trial, the riders will head into the mountains with a mountaintop finish at Prato Nevoso. The stage is 100km long and features just one third category climb before the first category summit finale.

It will prove a stern test for Winder in pink and she could end up handing the maglia rosa over to one of her teammates, either Longo Borghini or Deginan, or to a member of the SD Worx squad. With the top two teams so close together at the head of the GC, anything can happen on the final climb.