Annemiek van Vleuten continued her dominance of the Giro d’Italia Donne with an impressive victory in stage seven.
The defending champion powered away from France’s Juliette Labous and Italy’s Gaia Realini with 1.8km to go, landing a third stage win of the race.
She finished 13 seconds ahead of Labous, with Realini taking third.
Van Vleuten retained the leader’s pink jersey in the general classification, with Labous second and Realini third.
“This was a nice one because it was really a team performance,” said Dutch rider Van Vleuten after Thursday’s stage.
“Everyone did their job perfectly to defend the jersey, and it’s super nice to finish it off. I ended up in a really good situation in the final. I got Gaia Realini in front of me instead of in my wheel, she had to work for the podium, it was a perfect situation for us.”
Stage seven results
1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned/Movistar) 3hrs 7mins 52secs
2. Juliette Labous (Fra/DSM-Firmenich) +13secs
3. Gaia Realini (Ita/Lidl-Trek) +20secs
4. Liane Lippert (Ger/Movistar) +49secs
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den/FDJ-SUEZ) +55secs
6. Silvia Persico (Ita/UAE Team ADQ) +1min 1sec
7. Evita Muzic (Fra/FDJ-Suez) +1min 6secs
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ/SD Worx) Same time
9. Erica Magnaldi (Ita/UAE Team ADQ)
10. Mavi Garcia (Spa/Liv Racing TeqFind) +1min 57secs
General classification
1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned/Movistar) 18hrs 6mins 11secs
2. Juliette Labous (Fra/DSM-Firmenich) +3mins 56secs
3. Gaia Realini (Ita/Lidl-Trek) +4mins 25secs
4. Veronica Ewers (USA/EF Education-Tibco-SVB) +5mins 35secs
5. Erica Magnaldi (Ita/UAE Team ADQ) +5mins 37secs
6. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den/FDJ-SUEZ) +6mins 16secs
7. Mavi Garcia (Spa/Liv Racing TeqFind) +6mins 25secs
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ/SD Worx) +6mins 58secs
9. Silvia Persico (Ita/UAE Team ADQ) +7mins 1sec
10. Ane Santesteban (Spa/Jayco-AlUla) +9mins 12secs