The riders were faced another difficult stage today after the double passage of the Blockhaus a day earlier on Saturday. The three remaining riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike showed themselves in the opening phase of the race, but fell short during the final of the stage. Elisa Longo Borghini secured the pink jersey at the end of the stage.

The 30-year-old De Vries concludes her first grand tour in twentieth place in the general classification. "I'm proud of that. In hindsight, I did underestimate riding a grand tour a bit. Especially with the heat and the last tough stages. Everything went well until Friday, but then it became more difficult for me. I have learned a lot this week. The nice thing about such a grand tour is that the things you learn in the first stages are applicable in the rest of the days. Saving energy has really been a learning point for me."

Carlijn Achtereekte rode her third grand tour for the team and looks back on the Italian stage race. "It was a really fantastic week with the ladies. I surprised myself during the climbs. I helped the team as much as possible and tried to keep the other riders in position during week. This is my third grand tour and I don't think I have come through a grand tour so well before."
 

Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women came to Italy with ambitions. Sports director Jan Boven explains: "We had two goals for this week. Firstly, to ride a strong time trial with Lieke Nooijen." That objective was more than achieved with a fourth place for the 22-year-old rider in the opening time trial. "That indeed worked out very well, Lieke rode a great time trial”, Boven said.

“That time trial was already a week ago and that good feeling was somewhat lost as the week progressed. Our other goals were a top ten ranking in the final classification and to compete for a stage victory. Unfortunately that didn ‘t work out. Four riders dropping out hurts and it is not what we had hoped for. However, I also saw good things and it was an instructive week. Femke and Lieke are riding their first grand tour on an extremely difficult course. I have mixed feelings about it”, the sports director concludes.