Van Vleuten (Movistar) will enter tonight's (AEST) final stage of the Giro d'Italia Donne with a comprehensive 1'52" lead over Italian rival Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) after the Dutchwoman finished equal third with Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) in stage nine of the Giro d'Italia Donne - only 15 seconds behind Cavalli and 1'14" behind stage winner Faulkner (BikeExchange-Jayco).
The challenging 112.8km route from San Michele all'Adige to San Lorenzo Dorsino which featured three hard climbs saw American Faulkner pick up a significant amount of mountain points throughout the day, asserting a 13-point lead over van Vleuten in the polka dot jersey race with only the GC leader and Italians Cavalli, Borghini and Gaia Realini (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria) managing to keep up.
Faulkner and climber Realini both went on the attack on the first climb of the day as they ascended on the Fai della Paganella, but the American left Realini 1.5km behind seemingly with ease on the steep Passo Daone, the last classified climb of the day.
The group of four formed by the last 15km as van Vleuten went with Cavalli on the final climb, and Borghini impressively managed to close the gap on third-placed GC rider Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) to 49 seconds after being 3'21" behind at the start of the day.
Faulkner decided to go solo as she overtook Realini, eventually cruising her way to victory from the uphill finish to take out her second stage win of the Giro this year.
However, the victory was bittersweet for Faulker and BikeExchange-Jayco, after Aussie leader Amanda Spratt was forced to withdraw from from the race on Friday (AEST) as she tested positive to COVID-19.
Fellow Aussie Georgia Baker was also forced to pull out after she was deemed a close contact of Spratt.
“Two of our riders weren’t able to start yesterday because of COVID, so I just really wanted to put it all out there for them and for the team and give the best show,” the new mountains jersey leader said.
"Today was really hard, we knew that our best chance for a stage win was to go in an early break, so on the first climb, pretty early, less than 20km in, Gaia went and I went with her and we were able to get a gap and stay away."
Van Vleuten will be crowned the race winner if she can keep her lead on the final 90.5-kilometre stage, with 20-year-old Neve Bradbury (CANYON/SRAM Racing) likely to be the fastest-finishing Aussie as she currently sits in tenth position in the general classification.
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