Giro d'Italia Women 2024: Bradbury wins Blockhaus stage, Longo Borghini remains overall leader

The queen stage of the women's Giro d'Italia 2024 at the Blockhaus was won by Neve Bradbury, an Australian from the German team Canyon//SRAM Racing. With a gap of 44 seconds ahead of Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx - Protime) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), she took the stage win on stage 7. Bradbury moved up to third place in the overall standings and took the white jersey from her German team-mate Antonia Niedermaier. She finished a strong fifth. Meanwhile, Longo Borghini remains in the lead in the overall standings, one second ahead of Kopecky. This means that the final 8th stage will be a one-second thriller in the overall standings.

Bradbury triumphs

Neve Bradbury crowned a very strong performance with the stage win at the Blockhaus. First, 14 kilometres before the finish, she stepped up the pace out of the peloton to ensure that five riders took the lead: In addition to the Australian, these were team-mate Antonia Niedermaier, Lotte Kopecky, Elisa Longo Borghini and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck). Five kilometres later, Bradbury launched her next attack and was able to break away from the competition. In the end, she finished 44 seconds ahead of her closest rivals.

>> All stages of the Giro d'Italia Women 2024 at a glance

Giro d'Italia Women 2024: Results - the top 10 of stage 7

1. Neve Bradbury (Canyon//SRAM Racing) 4:17:34
2. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx - Protime) +0:44
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) +0:44
4. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +1:07
5. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM Racing) +2:02
6. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +2:02
7. Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx - Protime) +2:05
8. Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) +2:15
9. Mareille Meijering (Movistar) +4:20
10. Mavi Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco) +4:20

The current standings in the overall standings

1. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) 20:42:43
2. Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx - Protime) +0:01
3. Neve Bradbury (Canyon//SRAM Racing) +1:12
4. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +2:01
5. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +2:11
6. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM Racing) +2:28
7. Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx - Protime) +2:54
8. Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) +3:19
9. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) +4:18
10. Mavi Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco) +5:13

How the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia Women 2024 went

There were already attacks at the start of the race: Claire Steels (Movistar) and the German Romi Kasper (Human Powered Health), among others, broke away, while the peloton rolled up before the first big climb of the day at the Passo Lanciano and caught all the breakaway riders.

Ghekiere leads the mountain classification

The peloton was already extremely thinned out there. At the top of the climb, there were only around 25 riders in the peloton. The mountain classification was won by Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance - Soudal Team), who thus took the lead in the special classification - also because Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale) had to abandon the race.

On the following descent, 17 riders broke away from the rest. Many of the classification riders were now at the front of the peloton: Kopecky, Longo Borghini, Labous and Niedermaier. Before the final climb to the Blockhaus, however, the two groups rolled back together.

The decision at the log cabin

Realini really pushed the pace at the Blockhaus. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) was the first classification rider to run into problems 15 kilometres from the finish. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) was also shaken off in the meantime, but was able to catch up again a little later. Bradbury then launched an attack and ensured that only Niedermaier, Rooijakkers, Longo Borghini and Kopecky were left at the front of the peloton.

Five kilometres later, Bradbury shook off the rest of her rivals by stepping up the pace again and rode solo towards the stage win. The four women in pursuit let the Australian go. Longo Borghini then tried to attack. She was at least able to ensure that Niedermaier fell back. Shortly before the finish, the Italian with Kopecky in tow also shook off the valiantly fighting Rooijakkers. The final sprint between second and third place was then won by Kopecky, who is now just one second behind the overall leader, the Italian. Meanwhile, the outstanding winner of the day was Neve Bradbury.