Luperini earns another Giro d¹Italia podium for Team Faren Honda!
Luperini earns another Giro d¹Italia podium for Team Faren Honda!
Faren Honda¹s Fabiana Luperini showed her vast experience and strength to sprint into 3rd position in Stage 7 of the Giro d¹Italia Femminile.
A tough profile ensured that today¹s 128 kilometre stage to Castagnole delle Lanze would provide riders with one of their last opportunities to challenge for the Maglia Rosa as the Giro Donne comes to a close on Saturday. After an aggressive start, 12 riders managed to establish a break on the peloton at 42 kilometres into the race.
Faren Honda¹s Nicole Cooke was active at the front of the chasing peloton as she tried to launch team Faren Honda into the break however the peloton had different ideas as they were reluctant to let the current Olympic Champion escape from the bunch so easily.
The advantage to the breakaway group slowly decreased as team Rabobank chased aggressively leading into the penultimate climb at 20 kilometres to go. It was at this point which current tour leader Marianne Vos (Rabobank) attacked over the summit of the climb with Emma Johansson (Hitec) and Emma Pooley (AA Drink) in tow.
Faren Honda¹s Italian superstar Luperini remained composed, keeping her cards close to her chest as she bridged across to the 3 leaders in a small select group.
Heading into the final kilometre Luperini, whilst not being a renowned sprinter, used her years of racing experience to time her sprint to near perfection as she crossed the line in 3rd position behind hill-sprint specialists; Marianne Vos & Emma Johansson.
Tomorrow the team will face more forgiving terrain around the city of Varese where we will most likely see the pure sprinters being given their last chance to taste victory at this year¹s Giro d¹Italia Femminile.
Stage 7 Results followed by the general classification, post stage 7.
1Marianne Vos (Ned) Stichting Rabo Women Cycling Team3:17:44 2Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products - Mistral Home Cycling Team 3Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Faren Honda Team 4Evelyn Stevens (USA) Team Specialized - Lululemon 5Judith Arndt (Ger) Orica-AIS 6Emma Pooley (GBr) AA Drink - Leontien.nl Cycling Team 7Rasa Leleivyte (Ltu) Vaiano Tepso 8Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) MCipollini Giambenini 9Ashleigh Moolman (RSA) Lotto Belisol Ladies0:00:06 10Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Hitec Products - Mistral Home Cycling Team
