Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Lara Gillespie got herself into the large breakaway on the first mountain stage of Giro d'Italia, working for her team in the Dolomites (Photo: Luc Claessen-Getty Images)

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) has come through the first big mountain stage of Giro d'Italia 2026 in good order, getting into the breakaway for 50km.

The 25-year-old sprinter from Co Wicklow was clearly undeterred by the 3,500m of climbing on Wednesday’s stage 5, including the opening cat 1 ascent of Passo Tre Croc.

She was part of a 22-rider group which got clear before that 7.9km first climb, averaging 7.2 per cent, got underway.

The group escaped as the road crept higher from the start in Longarone all the way to the official start of the climb.

Though the breakaway riders had 3:30 in hand as they hit the base of the cat 1, Gillespie slipped off the back as the gradient began to kick in; not surprising since she is a sprinter.

Van der breggen and Vollering lead the front four - from Niedermaier and Holmgren - that went to the finish to fight for the stage win (Photo: Marco Alpozzi)

That meant she was soon scooped up by the peloton, though her decision to go clear meant she had avoided being among the riders dropped from the bunch on the opening climb, of four.

Advertisement

Those distanced early were left with either a frantic chase to get back into the bunch, or a long day off the back. There as 90km to complete when the riders crested the climb, including a cat 2 climb and two cat 3s.

Gillespie was distanced from the front group - which she had helped pull clear as it contained her team mates Erica Magnaldi and Eleonora Gasparrini - with just over 90km still to race, and with 2km remaining to the top of the mountain.

Another 50km would pass before the last of the breakaway riders was caught by the select group. And up over the final climb of the day - the 4.3km Costa averaging almost nine per cent - four riders pulled clear.

European champion Vollering out-sprints race leader van der Breggen for her first ever Giro stage win (Photo: Davide Spada)
Related News

In that small group of favourites were: race leader Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx-Protime), Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ), Antonia Niedermaier (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto) and Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek).

They stayed clear over the 17km from the top of the climb to the finish in Sante Stefano di Cadore. Vollering won the stage in a sprint from van der Breggen and Niedermaier.

Gillespie's UAE Team ADQ general classification leader, Elisa Longo Borghini, was distanced by the leading four on the final climb but managed to recover. She finished 5th on the stage at just 15 seconds.

Van der Breggen still leads the race after her monster ride to win the stage 4 TT. She has exactly one minute in hand over Vollering, with Niedermaier 3rd at 1:24.

Gillespie finished the stage in 84th, in a large group at 28:35. She is now 57th in the general classification at 36:25 with four stages remaining.

She will be especially interested in Thursday's stage 6, which takes the riders some 160km from Ala to Brescello over flat terrain.

The stage is the best chance of a bunch sprint for the remainder of this race. Gillespie will be hoping she can find her sprint legs again, and perhaps take a victory, after her efforts in the mountains.

She has already finished 2nd twice on this race, beaten to victory by former race leader Elisa Balsamo (Lidl Trek) on stages 1 and 2. But she has beaten the Italian in the past and will hope to be sprinting for victory into Brescello.

Related News