Giro Rosa stage 7: Lotte Kopecky sprints to victory among final kilometer chaos

After two podium finishes in the last two stages of the Giro Rosa, Lotto Soudal’s Lotte Kopecky stood upon the top step in Italy on Thursday.

The 24-year old finished ahead of Lizzie Deignan of Trek-Segafredo and Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon-SRAM. It was Kopecky’s first stage win at the Giro Rosa, but not her first time on the podium; the Belgian time trial national champion was third in stage six and second in stage five.

“Third time’s a charm,” Kopecky said. “I started to get a bit impatient after two podium spots in the previous stages. But it feels great to finally get a big win. I knew that the condition was more than fine, but it was frustrating to not be able to finish it off.”

Thursday’s 112.5-kilometer stage was relatively straightforward until the 82-kilometer mark in Caserta where the peloton tackled the first major climb of the day, the steep, six-kilometer ascent to the Sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo. Riders tackled the climb twice on a final circuit before descending into Maddaloni.

Fifty kilometers before the finish, Silvia Zanardi, Ainara Elbusto, Alison Jackson, Aude Biannic, and Maria Novoldskaia broke away from the main group to establish a 2:10 gap. Then, similar to Wednesday’s stage, Novoldskaia broke away on the first of two laps of the final circuit, but the Russian was caught as she reached the climb on the final lap.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) was the first to go hard from the bottom, and her move split the peloton. She was joined by top riders including Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott), Niewiadoma, Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb), and Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv).

“At the beginning of the climb there was a small group in front but they were never too far and we were able to come back to that group,” Kopecky said. “At the second part of the climb I didn’t get in trouble and I knew if I was still there in the final I had a big shot at the win.”

Less than one kilometer from the finish, a small swerve by a rider led to a touch of wheels that took down van Vleuten, Vos, and Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott). Mavi Garcia (Alé BTC Ljubljana), Omer Shapira (Canyon-SRAM), Erica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT) were also involved. Van Vleuten and Spratt were immediately taken to the hospital after finishing the race.

Kopecky came around the final corner in perfect position where she started her sprint early. Deignan and Niewiadoma followed to finish second and third on the day.

As of now, van Vleuten keeps the pink jersey; however, it seems unlikely that she will be able to continue her effort toward a third Giro Rosa victory.