Van der Breggen wins Giro d’Italia Donne

CORMONS, Italy, July 11, (AP): Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen solidified her favorite status ahead of the Tokyo Games by winning her fourth Giro d’Italia Donne on Sunday, finishing safely in the breakaway on the final stage of the prestigious Italian stage race.

Coryn Rivera of the U.S. beat British sprinter Lizzie Deignan to win the 10th stage. Elise Chabbey was third while van der Breggen crossed the line in fourth place with her arms raised to celebrate her dominant performance.

Van der Breggen, the reigning world champion, finished 1 minute, 43 seconds clear of South African teammate Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who won the previous day’s queen stage to solidify her own Olympic credentials. Demi Vollering, van der Breggen’s teammate on the Dutch squad for Tokyo, finished the race third overall.

Australian Amanda Spratt abandoned the race before the final stage to focus on her recovery for Tokyo, where the Olympic road races are the first two days of competition. Spratt crashed hard during Stage 8 and fought through the ninth stage.

The previous day, Marianne Vos abandoned the Giro to focus on her own Olympic preparations. The winner of the gold medal in London in 2012 won two stages of the Giro and showed some strong form ahead of Tokyo, where her biggest competition for gold could be teammates van der Breggen, Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten.