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Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 5 Preview – Tips, Contenders, Profile

Stage 5 should finally see a chance for the sprinters. They’ve had a hard week so far with a team time trial and then 3 lumpy stages to contend with. In true Giro Rosa fashion, even this sprint stage isn’t a guaranteed sprint. A massive Cat 2 climb takes up the middle of the stage with riders suffering an average of 4% for 13.2km. It’s enough that if raced hard, many of the sprinters will be in for a tough time trying to reach the peloton again. Even meaner is the positioning of an unclassified climb only 25km from the finish. The 1.2km at 6.5% might finish off some tired legs and we could even see a group disappear off the front.

Recent Giro Rosa Winners

2019 Annemiek van Vleuten
2018
Annemiek van Vleuten
2017
Anna van der Breggen
2016
Megan Guarnier
2015 – Anna van der Breggen

TV Coverage

Despite teasing us with a trailer, there’s no live TV coverage of the Giro Rosa still in 2020.

There are highlights shown on the PMG Sport Youtube Channel of each stage. The times vary each day.

Tuesday 15th September
Stage 5 – 15:20 (BST), 16:20 (CEST)

Teams

  • Mitchelton-Scott
  • Ale BTC Ljubljana
  • Aromitalia Vaiano
  • Astana
  • BePink
  • Bizkaia Durango
  • Boels-Dolmans
  • Canyon SRAM
  • CCC-Liv
  • Ceratizit-WNT
  • Cogeas-Mettler
  • Cronos Casa Dorada
  • Paule Ka
  • Eurotarget-Bianchi-Vittoria
  • FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
  • Lotto Soudal Ladies
  • Lviv Cycling
  • Movistar
  • Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA
  • Team Sunweb
  • Top Girls Fassa Bortolo
  • Trek-Segafredo
  • Valcar

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 5 Profile

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 5 Favourites

Marianne Vos seems a good place to start. The hill-top winner of Stage 3 here only just missed out on winning La Course this year. In the more conventional flat sprint, she timed her sprint only fractionally off being perfect as Lizzie Deignan came round and pipped her at the line. She can hold her own in a bunch but ideally would like some of the more powerful riders to have been dropped. This is the first stage to suit Astana’s Cuban Arlenis Sierra. She’s not had a good result since finishing 2nd and 3rd in the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana back in February. In large part because she’s only had 2 race days between then and the Giro Rosa. She’ll be wanting to show us what she can do.

Jolien d’Hoore has had a quiet 2020 so far, mainly as a result of COVID. The first race of the season was La Course where she finished outside the time limit, thanks to the repeated stiff climb. The most natural sprinter on the Boels Dolmans team, you’d imagine they’d be working for her. If d’Hoore isn’t there at the end of the stage, Amy Pieters can step up and try to deliver. She’s another rider who missed out earlier this season as racing stopped just before the classics season. She netted 5th place in the Dutch Nationals on a lumpy course so should be in contention in Stage 5.

Amy Pieters

Italian Elena Cecchini will be moving to SD Worx in 2021, so will want to get a stage win in her final Giro Rosa for Canyon SRAM. She’s been scoring good top-10s in recent races, including 5th at GP de Plouay and 9th at the European Championships. She’s a rider who can climb reasonably well and still sprint at the end. Movistar’s Barbara Guarischi is another rider with some form. She finished 2nd and 4th on stages in the Tour de l’Ardeche in the last week.

Dane Emma Cecilie Norsgaard will be a big favourite if she’s still in the pack heading into the finish. She’s having a breakout year after winning a Setmana Ciclista Valenciana stage, before finishing on the podium in Omloop van het Hageland. Post-lockdown she’s become the Danish national champion and finished 3rd in the U23 European Champs.

The Giro Rosa is Kirsten Wild‘s only racing of 2020 so far after beginning the year on the track. She’s won stages of the Giro Rosa before but is often best on flat stages which this one isn’t perfectly. If she’s not around near the end of the stage, then teammate Maria Giulia Confalonieri will be happy to take over. She was an excellent 8th in the GP de Plouay recently and 3rd earlier in the year at the Clasica Femenina Navarra. The Clasica Navarra had a similar late climb in it.

Kirsten Wild

FDJ have a couple of options. There’s Emilia Fahlin who was 7th in La Course, winning the bunch sprint in the chasing group. She started the year with 4th in Omloop van het Hageland as well, so she’s going well. Teammate Eugénie Duval will be a solid alternative, who finished 5th in La Perigord Ladies recently. Lotto Soudal Ladies have a great option as well. Lotte Kopecky finished surprisingly well in 6th on the uphill finish to Assisi on Stage 3. She beat Rivera in the Grote Prijs Euromat, finishing 5th in that flat sprint.

Team Sunweb will switch from Liane Lippert to the Canadian Leah Kirchmann. She started the season well in Australia, finishing the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in 5th place and winning the points jersey at the Tour Down Under. There’s also Coryn Rivera for good measure but she hasn’t found her best form in 2020 so far. She was only 11th in the Grote Prijs Euromat against a weakened sprint field behind winner Lorena Wiebes.

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 5 Outsiders

Silvia Zanardi was 4th in La Perigord Ladies a month ago, a strong result that built on her top-10 at the Vuelta CV Feminas. She’ll be the main focus of the relatively unfancied BePink team.

Valcar’s Teniel Campbell has been open in saying that she’s not been in the best form since lockdown. It’s a shame the break in racing happened when it did as she’d been 3rd in the Vuelta CV Feminas and 5th in the Omloop van het Hageland sprints.

Teniel Campbell

Aromitalia Vaiano’s Letizia Borghesi was a surprise stage winner from a breakaway in the 2019 Giro Rosa. She’s also in good form this year, finishing La Perigord Ladies in 11th place. She was also 19th on the uphill sprint into Assisi but this flat sprint will suit her more.

Stage Prediction

1st
Lotte Kopecky
2nd
Emma Cecilie Norsgaard
3rd
Marianne Vos