22-year-old Australian climber Neve Bradbury won the mighty Blockhaus finish in one of the toughest mountain stages possible in the modern era of women’s cycling, beating Elisa Longo Borghini and Lotte Kopecky in the Giro d’Italia Women stage 7.
The Queen stage featured Passo Lanciano (11.2 km, 8.6%) and Blockhaus (16.05 km, 8.07%) from a different side than usual. Passo Lanciano was the exact climb as the final Blockhaus climb, but the riders did not go up the final 5 kilometres in the first ascent.
The GC group was small when it reached the final climb, as the peloton did Passo Lanciano in 44:42 min, averaging 4.40 ᵉW/Kg. Neve Bradbury spent 2,095 kilojoules for 3:17h at 12,77 kj/kg/h. That is a very hard tempo before the final climb, which is why the GC group was small and there were huge gaps on the climb. Gaia Realini paced the first 5 kilometres of the climb for her teammate and the race leader Elisa Longo Borghini, shredding the group. Bradbury attacked with 10.6 km to go but got brought back but no one could follow her second acceleration with 9.3 km to go. The UAE Tour GC winner Lotte Kopecky was only 3 seconds behind Longo Borghini in the GC and was drafting for the whole climb behind the Italian. It was hot weather and Kopecky tried to cool down on a climb with multiple water bottles.
Bradbury was too strong to be caught, and she won the stage with a strong effort. The young Australian recently won her first WorldTour race in Tour de Suisse and here averaged 4.79 ᵉW/Kg for 57:50 min. That an exceptional performance for an U23 eligible rider, and that is not far from Annemiek van Vleuten’s greatest climbing efforts. As the stage was really hard and hot, this performance might be even more impressive than the final w/kg numbers seem in isolation. Bradbury is in her last contract year with Canyon//SRAM Racing and is one of the greatest climbing talents in the women’s peloton with podium finishes in Tour Down Under, UAE Tour, Tour de Suisse and Giro d’Italia. Bradbury finished third in the GC as she lost 1:47 min to Longo Borghini in the opening time-trial.
Longo Borghini could not drop Kopecky and lost to her in the final 300-metre sprint, finishing at the same time and keeping her lead by a single second. Longo Borghini pushed 4.71 ᵉW/Kg for 58:34 min, while Kopecky did 4.67 ᵉW/Kg. Pauliena Rooijakkers was dropped multiple times after Longo Borghini accelerations but caught her and Kopecky multiple times, averaging 4.68 ᵉW/Kg for 58:57 min.
The gaps were huge as the 9th place finisher Mareille Meijering lost 4:20 min to Bradbury, while Erica Magnaldi lost 8:20 min with 14th place. In Stage 8 Longo Borghini defended her lead and beat Kopecky by 20 seconds. The Lidl-Trek star won her first Giro d’Italia and was the first Italian winner since Fabiana Luperini in 2008.
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