CYLCING NEWS - In her 10th appearance at the Giro d'Italia Donne, SA cyclist Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio earned her first stage win and her second top-three finish in the general classification (GC).
Starting on 2 July and finishing on 11 July, this year marked the 32nd time cyclists took to the roads of Italy for the Giro d'Italia Donne, one of the most prestigious races on the women's cycling calendar.
The Giro Donne, for short, is a 10-stage road race that covers over 1 000 kilometres across northern Italy. It is also the fifth of the seven races on the 2021 UCI Women's ProSeries roster.
Moolman-Pasio made her Giro Donne debut in 2010, finishing 17th overall in the GC standings. She followed that up with a 13th place in 2011 before breaking into the top 10 in 2012.
Moolman-Pasio's best finish prior to this year was the 2018 edition of the race where she also finished in second place in GC behind Annemiek van Vleuten.
Out of the 10 times she's taken part in the race, she has finished inside the top 10 in the GC six times, but has never won a stage. This year, she set out to change that. After the first stage of the race, Moolman-Pasio stood in fifth place on the GC standings before a second place in the second stage elevated her into second place in GC.
She stayed second in GC for the remainder of the race, scooping up a fourth place in stage four and eighth in stage seven before her biggest triumph in the penultimate stage of the race.
Moolman-Pasio finished the 122,6km ninth stage from Feletto-Umberto to Monte Matajur in 3:52:35 to win by one minute and 26 seconds ahead of her SD Worx teammates Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen.
Her victory in the Queen Stage marked her best stage result at a Giro Donne, and helped power Moolman-Pasio to her joint-best GC finish. "It really feels so amazing. This is my 10th Giro [Donne], and I've never won a stage, I've only ever finished second," she said in a post-race interview. "I'm second in the GC, but it really is special to win a stage."
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