Annemiek van Vleuten wins Giro d'Italia Donne for fourth time as Chiara Consonni triumphs on Stage 9

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) avoided incident as she wrapped up a fourth Giro d'Italia Donne title, with Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) pipping Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) to take victory in the Stage 9 sprint.

With Van Vleuten taking a 3'56" lead into a final stage that always looked destined for a bunch sprint, the Dutchwoman just had to stay upright to add another title to her bulging palmarès. She did precisely that and will head into the second Tour de France Femmes later this month as the clear favourite to defend her title.

The straightforward final stage was far from a procession, with the 127km course, the second longest of the week, carrying the race from Sassari to Olbia across the entire north of Sardinia. It was another stiflingly hot day and the peloton's big teams were determined not to make it hard for themselves, denying any wannabe escapees the opportunity to gain much of a gap.

The main classifications were all but sewn up ahead of the stage, Van Vleuten also holding an unassailable lead in the mountains and points competitions, and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) starting the day with a six-minute cushion in the race to be best young rider.

The first climb was crossed all together, at cruising pace, after which a few riders decided to roll the dice at the last chance saloon. Iris Monticolo (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) made a reasonable effort to go it alone, before being replaced by seasoned solo artist, Anna Kiesenhofer (Israel Premier Tech Roland).

Kiesenhofer gained a gap of almost a minute and made it halfway up the long second category - and final - climb, before the peloton returned her to its clutches. From the summit, Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) set a fast pace at the front of the bunch to deter further attacks.

A full-bore effort allowed Liane Lippert (Movistar) to get away but not stay out, and she was pulled back just ahead of the start of the long fast run-in to the finish.

As the road leveled out another Top Girls Fassa Bortolo rider, Alessia Vigilia, was the final rider to enjoy some alone time and she held on even into a headwind as the speed increased behind her. Only once the sprinter teams began organising themselves ahead of the finish was Vigilia returned to the fold.

The long, wide road allowed plenty of room for leadouts but it was a somewhat chaotic run-in, with riders quickly losing team-mates and having to freelance their way into position. Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing TeqFind) started her sprint first, but faded. Consonni found herself with no choice but to go so early - too early it seemed - but she held her speed even as Vos moved off her wheel and weaved around. There was about half a bike length between them on the line.

An overwhelmed Consonni dedicated the win to Marta Bastianelli, who signed off her career by helping her team-mate to victory: "I have not been in the best condition for the past ten days but I'm really happy. This is for Marta, for her last stage, and I'm really happy to share it with her."

Bastianelli, the 2007 world road race champion, was welcomed onto the startline by the entire peloton ahead of her swansong appearance in Sardinia.

Van Vleuten completed her fourth and final Giro d'Italia victory, finishing with the bunch in 49th place.

"To win the GC is always super special because you need to do it with a team," she said afterwards. "This is the second one with Movistar, and I'm super proud of my team to finish it off. It was stressful, but I always had my team around me. Now it's time to recharge the batteries and prepare for the Tour de France."

Movistar also won the team classification.

Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich) and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) rounded out the overall podium.

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