Gillespie becomes first Irish woman to complete Tour, Vuelta, Giro

Lara Gillespie signals for the team car during today's final stage of the Giro, becoming the first Irish woman to complete cycling's three biggest stage races (Photo: Luc Claessen-Getty Images)

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) has become the first Irish woman to complete cycling's three biggest stage races - the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta España - after finishing her debut Giro in Saluzzo in northern Italy today, Sunday.

The Irish rider did not feature in the shake-up at the end of the stage, which became a day for the general classification riders and saw major drama play out at the front of the race.

A general classification group got clear over the first climb of the day - the cat 1 Montoso, at 8.7m  and 9.5 per cent average gradient. And though there was still 90km to race from the top of the ascent, there was no regrouping.

Instead, the general classification group pushed on and then split just after that first climb, with Demi Vollering (FDJ United SUEZ) later managing to distance race leader Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx-Protime).

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Vollering, in the blue climbers jersey, and van der Breggen chasing the front group before Vollering rode away to overall victory on the final stage today (Photo: Marco Alpozzi)

Vollering made her move on the last climb of the day, shaking off Van der Breggan and getting across to Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek).

Niedermaier, who began the day 3rd overall at 1:20, started the breakaway move with 80km to go. At the finish Gillespie's team mate Longo Borghini won the stage in a sprint from Fisher-Black, Niedermaier and Vollering.

And when maglia rosa Van der Breggan trailed in 7th at 2:23, that saw her slip from the race lead to 3rd on the final general classification.

Vollering ran out the winner by 30 seconds from Niedermaier, with Van der Breggen 3rd at 1:37 and stage winner Longo Borghini in 4th at 2:44.

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Elisa Longo Borghini takes victory on the final stage for Lara Gillespie's UAE Team ADQ squad (Photo: Luc Claessen-Getty Images)

For Gillespie, the race proved an excellent opportunity to gain more experience and take results. She placed 2nd on stages 1 and 2 and wore the points leader's classification jersey for several stages as the leader of the competition, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), was in the maglia rosa.

And though Gillespie did not get the stage win she hoped for, she has underlined he status as one of the top sprints in the world, not to mention making history as the first Irish woman to finish the Tour-Giro-Vuelta.

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