Race report from Theo Maucher
Altedo to Verona 136km
It has been a quite fast race. Nobody wanted to let a group go today.
After 80km there was the first successful breakaway with a group of 11 including Iris Slappendel and Sharon Laws.
Our plan worked because Sharon was dangerous for the GC riders. Nederland Bloeit started to chase hard to get this group back. With a gap of maximum 40sec they had to work hard.
Then the Hitec team of Emma Johansson helped the dutch team of Vos and finally they caught the leading group. Immediately another group went and in the end only Nicole Cooke survived and took the stage win with a few seconds. Marianne Vos won the bunch sprint and became second in front of Ina Teutenberg.
Lucy Martin already in the 8th place from the day before, was on the way to another top ten place when she ran into Rochelle Gilmore who hit the tarmac just in front of her with 50m to go.
Injury update:
Lizzie Armitstead crashed quite hard the other day. She was on the way back from the team car with bottles for her teammates when another rider crashed, fell in her line and took her to the ground.
She crashed on the bottles in her jersey and for some moments she could hardly breathe. With contusions on the chest she finished the stage in the grupetto.
Yesterday she took the start in Potenza Piceno despite her stiff right side. After 10km of racing she had to stop because she wasn’t able to go out of the saddle. The team lost a important teammate especially for the coming flat stages.
Today Lucy Martin’s hard crash into the barrier sent her to the hospital where it was confirmed she has a broken right hand and is out of the race. Another tough loss for the team.
More photos from the Giro Donne:
