Giro d'Italia Donne: Antonia Niedermaier takes Stage 5 win as Annemiek van Vleuten and Elisa Longo Borghini crash

Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM Racing) held off a late push from world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) to take the queen stage on the 2023 Giro Donne.

Despite coming off the road while chasing on the final descent, Van Vleuten was able to get back on her bike and continue the chase.

In the final corners the maglia rosa had her quarry in her sights but the talented young German dug deep to take the first Women's WorldTour victory of her career.

Within moments of Van Vleuten's incident, second place Elisa Longo Borghini suffered a dramatic fall of her own, locking up her wheels and crashing into an earth bank while taking a tight corner at speed.

Although still able to get riding again, the Italia champion was battered and bloodied, she lost her podium placing, rolling in more than seven minutes behind the leaders.

Van Vleuten began the day with a 49 second advantage over Longo Borghini, but was in no mood to simply defend her position at the top of the general classification.

According to her plan, the 40 year old set off on the attack at the foot of the Passo del Lupo. The aim, she would say later, was to get ahead of the others in order to be safe on the descent.

Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) was the only rider able to stay with Van Vleuten, as the Dutch rider sailed towards the Cima Coppi and the maximum 13 mountains points, which took her to the top of the mountains classification as well.

Behind the pair, on the mountain road which averaged 8.6% for just less than 10km, the peloton quickly fractured, as those that could climb strongly said goodbye to those for whom it was not their specialty. Longo-Borghini was briefly left behind but managed to make her way back towards the contenders.

Having descended safely, the leaders were split into two groups of five by the time the road levelled out again. With bonus seconds on offer the intermediate sprint at Cuorgne was likely to be hotly contested and so it proved, with Elisa Longo Borghini able to take another two seconds back on Van Vleuten.

At 50km from the finish line, the Stage 4 star, Veronica Ewers (EF Education SVB Tibco) was looking like the day's biggest loser, having fallen back by some distance. Realini and Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx) were gaining several places in the rankings by being in the lead group.

The chasing group was able to rejoin the first on the second of the day's climbs, which saw Juliette Labous (Team DSM–Firmenich) try several times to go over the top.

Ahead of the final, and steepest climb of the day, a larger bunch containing Veronica Ewers was able to get back on, although the super group was never going to last long on the tough gradients to come.

On the Sant'Ignazio, with about 26km to go, Niedermaier, used the attacks of others as a launchpad to make her move. She pushed away from the group she was in, and stormed past the two riders ahead of her to build a solid lead and take the maximum Queen of the Mountains points on offer.

With just under 12km left, Elisa Longo Borghini (LIDL-Trek) made her attack, taking Van Vleuten and no others with her as they entered the crucial stages.

There was a dramatic moment with 6.3km to go as both Van Vleuten and Longo Borghini crashed coming down the descent. The Dutchwoman was able to get back on her bike, but the Italian’s crash was more serious and it took her a few minutes until she was able to get up and carry on.

Van Vleuten, unaware of what had happened to Longo Borghini a few dozen metres back, was able set off in hot pursuit off the leader Niedermaier. She brought the gap down to ten seconds and the German was in sight on the road as the pair passed the flamme rouge within seconds of each other.

And the 20-year-old was able to just hold off the 40-year-old as Niedermaier came home to take a memorable victory.

Van Vleuten was not disappointed to finish second. "I think it was really exciting," she afterwards. "Which is what we want for women's cycling. Today we put on a show, maybe too much as on the final descent I took a bit too much risk, but nothing bad. The most important thing is I took time on other GC riders."

The result saw Van Vleuten more than double her lead in the general classification, with Antonia Niedermaier's career-best riding taking her into second place. An impressive recovery from Veronica Ewers ensure she retains the third podium place by more than 40 seconds.

Longo Borghini was able to finish but she was over seven minutes down on Van Vleuten, meaning she falls from the top ten.

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