Kristen Faulkner wins Giro Donne Queen Stage and Mountain Jersey!

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Kristen Faulkner won a long-range attack in the penultimate stage of Giro d’ Italia Donne Saturday. After scoring points over three hard climbs, Faulkner moved into the lead in the mountain classification which she secured on the final stage Sunday.

Less than 20km into the 112.8km stage, Faulkner went for an early breakaway on the first categorized climb following Italian climber Gaia Realini. By the top of the Fai della Paganella climb, the duo was 1:17 minutes ahead of a reduced peloton. On the 10.1km Passso Duron, Faulkner and Realini’s lead held steady at around two minutes. At the summit, Faulkner took maximum mountain points which moved her into the lead for the green jersey. On the final climb of the day – the incredibly-steep Passo Daone – Faulkner attacked and rode away from her breakaway companion. Faulkner crested the top of the climb 1:52 minutes ahead of the chasing group and held onto the lead on the hilly run to the finish line.

Faulkner started stage ten in the green mountain jersey and finished still in the lead of the classification – ten points ahead of Elise Chabbey. She also secured third in the points classification. Teammate Teniel Campbell finished tenth on the stage. Faulkner’s stage win and green jersey victory was a strong finish for Team BikeExchange-Jayco after losing general classification contender Amanda Spratt and Georgia Baker from competition on stage eight due to Covid.

“It’s definitely been a race of resilience, stage four was pretty rough for me with dehydration and then Spratty and Georgia didn’t start yesterday because of Covid, so it was really special to come back really strong and show the strength of our team and how we don’t let anything bring us down,” said Faulkner.

Source:

https://www.liv-cycling.com/global/news/kristen-faulkner-wins-giro-donne-queen-stage-and-mountain-jersey/27067