Alessia Vigilia (Uno-X Mobility, Italy) won the Giro dell’Emilia Internazionale Donne Elite on 3 October, solo, 6″ clear, in 2h50’46”. Sarah van Dam (Team Visma | Lease A Bike, Canada) was second, Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez, Great Britain) third.
The race
The race started in Ferrara and for much of the route not a lot happened. The women’s Giro dell’Emilia is a little over a hundred kilometres long and the climbs come late: the first that counts is Botteghino di Zocca, then the Bologna circuit with San Luca. On 3 October, the same day as the European Championships, the peloton lined up with fewer names than usual.
After the opening phase the break formed: eight riders. Among them were two Uno-X Mobility riders, Alessia Vigilia and Francesca Pellegrini. Pellegrini pulled for her team-mate, then eased aside.
The decisive moment came on the flat, far from San Luca. Vigilia rode away alone from the break and built a lead that at one point went beyond five minutes. The sources do not agree on the exact kilometre of the attack: all we know is that she went well before the last climb.
Behind, Visma | Lease a Bike took up the chase. The group of the best riders was reduced to around twenty and the gap began to fall. When Vigilia crossed the top of San Luca for the first time, around ten kilometres from the finish, she still had 2’18”.
In the final part the lead melted quickly. Van Dam was the strongest of the chasers and attacked on the last climb; Dickson also broke from the group to give chase. Vigilia, already tired, held her rhythm and arrived alone in 2h50’46”. Van Dam finished at 6”, Dickson at 14”, with Eisen in the same time.
For Vigilia, 27, it is the biggest win: her third as a professional, the first since 2023. She is also the youngest winner of this race since 2020, when Cecilie Ludwig won. For Italy it is a return to success after Elisa Longo Borghini, who won in 2024.
Van Dam called the result a little bittersweet and admitted that Visma could have raced some stretches of the day differently. The Dutch team had three riders in the first eight, but did not manage to close the gap.
There are 2 Italians in the top ten. 78 riders finished out of 107 starters.
How they finished
The top ten
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alessia Vigilia | Uno-X Mobility | 2h50’46” |
| 2 | Sarah van Dam | Team Visma | Lease A Bike | +6″ |
| 3 | Lauren Dickson | FDJ United-Suez | +14″ |
| 4 | Malou Eisen | Volkerwessels Cycling Team | +14″ |
| 5 | Nikola Nosková | Cofidis Women Team | +27″ |
| 6 | Julie Bego | Cofidis Women Team | +31″ |
| 7 | Maud Oudeman | Team Visma | Lease A Bike | +31″ |
| 8 | Rosita Reijnhout | Team Visma | Lease A Bike | +31″ |
| 9 | Henrietta Christie | EF Education-Oatly | +33″ |
| 10 | Monica Trinca Colonel | Liv-Alula-Jayco | +33″ |
The race in numbers
- Selection index
- 90 out of 100 Of 78 finishers: 5 within 30 seconds of the winner, 20 within 2 minutes, all within 10 minutes (her included). It runs from 0, a bunch sprint, to 98, a solo finish.
News written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- Results and times: UCI, official results.
- Photo: Florian Pépellin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
.JPG){kind=link}