Vollering Takes the Stage, Van der Breggen Takes Everything Else: Stage 5 in the Cadore

Demi Vollering attacked across three mountains, through a double summit circuit, and along a descent into the Comelico valley floor. Every time she went, Anna van der Breggen came with her.

At the finish in Santo Stefano di Cadore, four riders crossed the line together: Vollering, van der Breggen, Antonia Niedermaier, and Isabella Holmgren. Vollering outsprinted the group and took the stage. Van der Breggen took second and kept the maglia rosa. The general classification margin, which had been a minute and ten seconds entering Stage 5, closed to a minute flat once bonus seconds were applied.

A minute. Three climbs, 3,400 metres, 146 kilometres. The maglia rosa moved ten seconds.

The Stage

Stage 5 left Longarone in the Piave valley and ran northeast through the Boite valley corridor toward Cortina d'Ampezzo. The first 70 kilometres were transitional: fast, rolling, SD Worx-Protime keeping the tempo honest to control break attempts before the climbing began. No break of substance went, and no one expected one to. The race was the climbing.

Passo Tre Croci (7.9km at 7.2%) climbs out of Cortina's northeastern edge toward Misurina, consistent and progressive, with the Tofane massif rising southwest throughout. The field thinned here. Sprint-stage riders and rouleurs were dropped, but the GC group arrived at the summit intact or nearly so.

Passo Sant'Antonio followed directly: 8.3 kilometres at 7.5%, with kilometres two through four hitting double-digit gradients. This is the stage's hardest individual climb, the place where Van der Breggen's time trial legs become relevant on a road stage, and the place where Vollering is supposed to go clear. She went. Van der Breggen covered. The move that existed going into the Sant'Antonio — Vollering gaps van der Breggen, takes time — did not materialise. The group over the summit was four: Vollering, van der Breggen, Niedermaier, Holmgren.

The Costalissoio circuit ran twice in the final section — 2.7 kilometres at 10% each time, the short wall that defines the race's Comelico finale. First ascent, first descent, second ascent. Vollering tested the group on the second Costalissoio. Van der Breggen was there. The four crested the final summit together, descended into Santo Stefano di Cadore, and arrived at the finish as a group.

Vollering won the sprint. She has been the better climber in the Dolomites. She has also lost the argument where it matters: van der Breggen is still faster at every moment of truth. The stage win, and the ten bonus seconds that came with it, moved Vollering to 1:00 down in the general classification.

The General Classification

The race that emerged from Stage 5 looks like this:

1. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) — maglia rosa
2. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) — +1:00
3. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) — +1:24
4. Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) — +2:01
5. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) — +2:03
6. Elisa Longo Borghini — +2:12

The top four survived Stage 5's three-mountain test together. Reusser and Longo Borghini lost significant time — both dropped before the Costalissoio final and arrived well after the stage's main quartet. That sharpens the GC picture considerably. The race is now a four-rider contest, and it runs to Sestriere on Sunday.

Stage 6 (Ala → Brescello, 159km) tomorrow is a sprint stage across the Po plain — no climbs, controlled racing, Elisa Balsamo favoured for what would be her third stage win. Van der Breggen and Vollering will sit. The GC does not move on flat roads.

The race resumes on Saturday in the hills above Cuneo (Stage 7) and on Sunday at Sestriere (Stage 8, the summit finish). Those two days will settle everything.

For the Sestriere climb and what the Stage 8 summit finish looks like for athletes who want to ride it, see our Sestriere cycling guide. For the Stage 5 route preview and climb profiles, see our Cadore cycling destination guide.