Giro Donne LIVE - Can Cavalli overthrow Van Vleuten on the Queen Stage?

She looks spent, only limply lifting an arm in celebration after crossing the line. It looked like she was only aiming for the mountains jersey this morning. Take the stage as well, particularly having spent most of the day on her own, is just astonishing.

Cavalli comes home in second spot, for a few seconds gained on Van Vleuten, plus 6 bonuses. Longo-Borghini surges to pip Van Vleuten to third. The clock is ticking - we'll see whether Garcia is able to save her podium place.

Through the town, under the flamme rouge, she doesn't seem to be easing up. Phenomenal performance from the American to stay away all day.

Behind, Cavalli discards her bottle, prepares for one big push, and puts the hammer down. She won't gain much time on Van Vleuten, but will welcome the symbolism of having got even one over on AVV.

And still Faulkner is holding off the Longo-Borghini-led chasers by 1'33. They are now two minutes ahead of the Garcia group.

Despite being uncategorised, the final climb is not to be sniffed at, and could separate the chasing quartet. Will we see an attack from Elisa Longo-Borghini?

Despite it being 4 against 1 behind, with Realini having tagged onto the maglia rosa group, Faulkner is holding on and still leads by 1'30.

The final 10 are very up and down but apart from the uphill finish, there are no obvious places where you would expect the American to lose time. If she still has 30 seconds in hand with a couple of kilometres to go, she should be okay. Van Vleuten seems content to let Longo-Borghini do the pulling.

In group 3, Mavi Garcia is doing all the work to secure her podium place. The Spanish champion has a minute and a half in hand.

The 24 year-old is descending with finesse, riding really smoothly through the corners, losing very little speed before accelerating out again. She's made up almost a minute on Faulkner on the descent.

Cavalli knows there's no point in pushing, so waits up for Van Vleuten. They also have Elisa Longo-Borghini for company who has a very good reason to ride. Can she make up enough time to claw her way onto the podium? Doubtful, but don't rule it out.

Cavalli pushes the envelope into the corners and is able to distance Van Vleuten on the descent. This is what she wanted to do yesterday. Van Vleuten is taking the turns a little more carefully. They won't be riding downhill for very long before the road levels out, so I'd expect them to come back together. The size of her lead means there's no real need for Van Vleuten to take risks.

Meanwhile Longo-Borghini has again distanced Mavi Garcia. Can she make up the 3'20 deficit to the Spanish rider and snatch that precious podium place?

The American claims maximum mountains points, and now has her eyes on the prize of the stage victory as well. She goes over the top alone, as a small but strong acceleration was enough to drop Realini.

We've already seen how well Faulkner can descend, and she seems to prefer to do so without any passengers. With two unclassified climbs to come, including the uphill finish there's still a fair bit of racing left today.

Van Vleuten is struggling to hold the Italian's wheel. She has Garcia on hers, as they overtake Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ). Magnaldi could be a big help to Garcia in the final phase of the stage. As she too falls through the field Brodie Chapman hands a bottle to Cavalli.

The leaders are 3km from the top of the climb. It doesn't get much steeper than this, so unless someone is able to attack, i think they're going to hang on.

Not the longest climb, at 6km, but with an average gradient of 10.2% it is probably the steepest. When gaps begin to fall, they could tumble.

It's also very narrow, and not the smoothest of surfaces, but there are plenty of trees in full foliage, offering shelter from the blistering heat.

The much larger figure of Faulkner maintains a good tempo, with Realini holding her wheel. Mavi Garcia is setting the pace at the front of the maglia rosa group, which is reducing rapidly in number.

As the race arrives at the foot of the Passo Daone, our lead duo are two minutes ahead of the quartet of chasers, who themselves have just shy of the same sized advantage over the bunch. This is where the race could change.

Faulkner said she suffered from dehydration on the final climb yesterday, which makes her performance even more impressive. She's well stocked with bottles and her team should be able to keep her topped up. This is the last big test of the Giro Donne. Who will pass with flying colours?

Faulkner and Realini roll though the intermediatae sprint. With all the points taken by the front five, none of whom are in the mix for the maglia ciclamino, there are no changes in the points competition.

One thing you might have missed yesterday, however, was Annemiek van Vleuten displacing Elisa Balsamo from the lead. Balsamo remains in the jersey, because AVV can't wear two at once. Here's how things stand:

1 Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar) 52 points
2 Elisa Balsamo (Trek - Segafredo) 50
3 Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) 34
4 Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) 34
5 Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) 33

Nice work Trek-Segafredo. Feeling for the fastwomen today.

As the race descends towards the intermediate sprint at Vigo Rendena, a shot of the bunch shows how attritional the first couple of climbs have been. By my count there can be barely more than twenty riders left. Elise Chabbey has made it back to that group.

Here's what today's stage looks like. The riders are currently almost exactly halfway along, with Faulkner and Realini 1km from the top of the second climb. You'd expect Falkner to take the 8 points, which will put her into the virtual mountains jersey, with a lead of 7 over Annemiek van Vleuten, the only rider who can realistically deprive her of it.

The big money in that competition, however, will come on the Passo Daone, 86.9km into the stage. It's the only Cat 1 climb of the race, and offers 13,11,9,7 and 5 points to the first five riders at the summit.

With one and done, and Faulkner midway up the Duron, here's how things stand in the Queen of the Mountains competition:

1 Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) 40 points
2 Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar) 36
3 Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange - Jayco) 35
4 Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) 30
5 Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) 24

Realini and Faulkner have a reasonable lead over the peloton of 2'39. That should be enough to take them over the top of the next climb, the Duron, after which we would expect the favourites to come out to play.

Between the break and the bunch, however, a situation seems to be developing. A gang of four riders, Brodie Chapman (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine), Anouska Koster (Jumbo Visma), Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) have stolen a march of almost a minute. What three of those riders have in common is that they're team-mates of the trio contending for the two remaining podium places (assuming AVV has top spot wrapped up.) It's going to be interesting to see how they can shape the second half of the stage...

So far today has gone in much the same way as yesterday. A whole heap of riders wanted to get up the road, but none more than Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange) who made a break for it on the first climb of the day, the Fai della Paganella, with Gaia Realini (Isolmant - Premac - Vittoria) for company.

The pair made it up and over the summit, with Faulkner picking up the maximum mountains points to bring her within a single score of the jersey, held by Elise Chabbey (Cayon Sram). With Chabbey dropped from the peloton, it seems as if only the maglia rosa herself can prevent Faulkner from winning the competition.

Welcome to live coverage of Stage 9 of the Giro Donne and We've got a lot to pack in. Today is the penultimate stage, our final day in the Dolomites - the hipter's mountain range - the day with the most climbing, which makes it the Queen Stage, and also contains the highest point in the race, for which the first rider to the summit is awarded the Cima Coppi.

Dai, andiamo!