Giro d'Italia Women - Stage 9: Vollering takes pink from van der Breggen on the final day

No "Tour d'honneur" to roll out like in the men's grand tours - the Giro d'Italia Women took to the mountains once again on the final day. On the spectacular stage with start and finish in Saluzzo, the virtual overall lead changed hands several times over the 145 kilometres: Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ), Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) and Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx-Protime) took centre stage.

Vollering celebrates and skips the final sprint

Vollering ultimately had the better end of the day, taking the overall lead and winning the Giro d'Italia Women 2026. The Dutchwoman reached the finish with a group of four riders, but stayed out of the sprint for the stage win. The stage win went to Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) ahead of Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) and Niedermaier. Van der Breggen reached the finish 2:22 minutes behind. Before the stage, she had a lead of just one minute over Vollering.

The favourites dominated the stage on the first climb of the day up to Montoso (category HC), before a leading group around Niedermaier, Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black dominated the race. In the final third of the race, Vollering then shook off van der Breggen in the chasing group and caught up with the leading trio, which meant that the Dutchwoman rode towards overall victory.

Niedermaier finishes Giro in second place

Niedermaier finished the Giro in second place, 35 seconds behind Vollering. Van der Breggen dropped back to third place on the last day, 1:39 minutes behind. Vollering also secured the mountain classification, while Elisa Balsamo (Lidl - Trek) won the points classification

Giro d'Italia Women 2026 - Results of the 9th stage

How the 9th stage of the Giro d'Italia Women 2026 went

Despite several attacks, there was no escape group at the start of the stage. Accordingly, the peloton reached the most difficult task of the day, the climb to Montoso (HC category) - 8.6 kilometres long and 9.7 per cent steep on average.

Early in the climb, Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) launched an attack, which was immediately fended off by Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ). Other riders then caught up, including Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) and Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime). A ten-strong leading group was formed. Vollering secured the mountain points at the summit of Montoso.

Niedermaier is now virtually in the pink jersey

On the descent, Longo Borghini then took the initiative 86 kilometres from the finish and was accompanied by Niedermaier and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek). The trio quickly built up a lead of around two minutes on the group of van der Breggen and Vollering before reaching the Colletta di Paesana (category 3). Niedermaier thus took the virtual overall lead of the tour. She also secured the mountain points on the Colletta di Paesana.

A wild chase then developed between the leading group with Longo Borghini, Niedermaier and Fisher-Blake and the chasing group with van der Breggen, Vollering, Femke De Fries (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Lauren Dickson (FDJ United - SUEZ). However, the latter later dropped back. The main issue was the gap between Niedermaier and van der Breggen, which stood at 1:24 minutes before the stage. Under van der Breggen's pace work, the group worked its way back up to 1:30 minutes with 40 kilometres to go, resulting in a game of seconds for the overall lead.

Vollering outpaces van der Breggen

On the last climb of the day, the Colletta di Brondello (category 2), Vollering attacked out of the chasing group 40 kilometres before the finish. Van der Breggen followed first, but was unable to keep up with her compatriot's rear wheel. She quickly fell back around 25 seconds behind Vollering. The gap to Niedermaier at this point was around 1:17 minutes. Longo Borghini, Niedermaier and Fisher-Blake reached the summit of the Colletta di Brondello together 35 kilometres before the finish. However, there was a lack of co-operation between the three riders afterwards.

In the following descent, Vollering came closer to the leader's jersey second by second, while van der Breggen's gap remained stable at 1:15 minutes. With 28 kilometres to go, Vollering closed the gap to the leading group around Niedermaier. Vollering was now virtually in the pink jersey.

Van der Breggen was subsequently accompanied by De Fries, but she had little to offer against the co-operation of the leading quartet. Ten kilometres before the finish, her gap grew to over two minutes.