Vollering Conquers a Storm-Battered Colle delle Finestre as Van der Breggen Defends Pink Into the Final Day
Demi Vollering won the queen stage of the 2026 Giro d'Italia Women on the legendary Colle delle Finestre, but the day she had circled for weeks failed to deliver the maglia rosa. Anna van der Breggen tracked the FDJ-SUEZ leader's every move on the brutal final climb to finish fourth in the lead group, surrendering the stage but protecting a 49-second overall lead with only Sunday's finale to come.
The stage was thrown into chaos before the riders even reached the mountain. With reports of avalanche debris and an unstable sheet of ice across the upper slopes, race direction took the late decision to neutralise the most dangerous section and bring the finish forward to roughly one kilometre before the Colle delle Finestre's summit GPM. The original 106-kilometre route from Rivoli was meant to crest the Finestre's infamous gravel and descend to a mountaintop finish at Sestriere; instead the organisers improvised a finish line on the climb itself, compressing the entire GC battle into a single explosive ascent.
That suited the climbers perfectly. As the gradient bit on the unpaved upper ramps, the favourites' group shredded to a handful of riders, with Vollering, Van der Breggen, Antonia Niedermaier and the young Canadian Isabella Holmgren trading blows on the loose surface. Vollering attacked repeatedly, searching for the gap that would overturn the race, but the SD Worx-Protime leader never let a wheel-length open up.
In the final metres Vollering moved decisively to the front and launched a last acceleration to take the stage and the maximum time bonus, with Holmgren second and Niedermaier third. Van der Breggen, content to mark rather than match every dig, rolled across the improvised line fourth in the same group, knowing that limiting her losses to the bonus seconds was a result that kept the race firmly in her hands.
It was a third stage win of this Giro for FDJ-SUEZ's headline signing, but also a reminder of just how complete Van der Breggen has been since storming into pink with her Nevegal time-trial demolition. The Dutchwoman, racing what she has said will be among her final seasons, has answered every attack in the high mountains and now carries a 49-second cushion into Sunday — a margin that should be decisive barring disaster.
Vollering, for her part, refused to concede. "We tried everything that was possible on a climb like that," she said at the finish, pointing to the bonus seconds still on offer on the road to Saluzzo. Niedermaier sits third overall at 1:20 and Holmgren fourth at 1:55, leaving the Canyon//SRAM rider and the Lidl-Trek youngster to fight over the final podium step rather than the overall.
The 2026 edition has been one of the most dramatic in the race's recent history — a mountain time trial that reset the GC, a sprinters' war headlined by Elisa Balsamo, the bike-weight expulsion of Lorena Wiebes, and now a queen stage rewritten by the weather. Whether Vollering can produce one last miracle on Sunday or Van der Breggen seals an emphatic overall, the Colle delle Finestre has once again proved why it is the most feared road in women's stage racing.