It's almost unthinkable that you could see a rider win on a climb as iconic as the Colle dell Finestre and still look disappointed, but that was the exact scene for Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) on the penultimate day of the Giro d'Italia Women.
While she took victory on the abbreviated stage 8 on Saturday, Vollering knew that, having not dropped Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), her opportunities at wresting the pink jersey from her former teammate and mentor were almost all exhausted.
The final stage had climbs, but the toughest came only 50km into a 145km stage, and Van der Breggen had managed to blunt all of her attacks with apparent ease to that point in the race. But after a lesson in perseverance, and "daring to lose it all", 24 hours later, it was Vollering who had claimed the maglia rosa in Saluzzo after a final epic stage, not Van der Breggen.
"It's crazy," was Vollering's immediate reaction post-stage. "I think I cannot describe it yet. It feels so surreal.
"I mean, we made this plan yesterday in the evening, Lars Boom our sports director and Lieselot Decroix [head of performance] came to our table when we are having dinner, and they started to joke a little bit, like, 'prepare yourself, because tomorrow is going to be a very long and very big day for all of us', and the girls, they were like, 'oh yeah, let's go'. From the start on, they were on fire."
Alongside British super-domestique Lauren Dickson and her FDJ United-SUEZ teammates, Vollering lit up the stage on the Montoso climb with just under 100km to ride, forming a small lead group of favourites with two-thirds of the final day to come.
Her next tactical decision was to let third-place Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) attack away with Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), risking her second-place spot to try and make Van der Breggen come to the front to pace.
"My teammates directly put a pace on this long first climb, and Lauren [Dickson] was amazing today; she kept going, and then we made it over the top with a small group," said Vollering.
"Today was all about daring to lose. I had to dare to lose it all, so I was able to let Antonia go away, and I said to Anna, 'I'm fine with third because second or third doesn't matter to me. It's now up to you to do the work'."
In actuality, Dickson did much of the pacing until the last climb, before Van der Breggen took over to try and gradually chase back to Niedermaier, who virtually led the race overall at times on stage 9.
This was until Vollering made her ambitious bid for glory with 39km remaining, surging away on the Colletta di Brondello with repeated accelerations. With Van der Breggen in the rearview mirror, Vollering pushed herself to the edge to catch the trio in front before working with them to confirm the pink jersey.
She celebrated over the line with her teammates, partner, and dog as the emotions started to flow in typical Vollering fashion, a champion who wears her heart on her sleeve.
"I had to try to drop her somewhere, and I really went all in on that last climb. I knew that was like the time trial of my life, I had to do there. Then it was still so long to finish, but I did it. We did it, and I can still not believe it," said a teary-eyed Vollering.
"I only dared to dream of it. Then I had two minutes before I was really still, because I also had cramps everywhere in my legs, so with still 20k to go, I was like I hope I make it to the finish line.
"But the group I was in was working really well together, and it was quite a fast terrain. I was flying, it gave me really wings today to have the thought that it was maybe possible, as soon as I had the gap on Anna, I was like, 'OK, now I really need to give it everything I have."
Vollering emptied the tank working with Niedermaier, Fisher-Black and Longo Borghini, opting to celebrate in fourth place over the line knowing she had victory sewn up instead of sprinting for the stage win. Conquering the maglia rosa puts her into an elite group alongside only Annemiek van Vleuten as women's riders to have won all three Grand Tours.
Her next goal will be to try and win the Tour de France again, having tasted defeat in the past two editions to Kasia Niewiadoma and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, but with the added perspective that victories in cycling's biggest races aren't normal. Working as hard as she and her team did to bring this one out of the fire will do that.
"Of course, I dream of the Tour de France Femmes, but first, I should enjoy this one, because I also know how easily it is to lose a Grand Tour," Vollering said. "Sometimes I think it's really normal to win, almost, but I also know it's not normal."
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