Description
June 1, 2026
37th Giro d’Italia Women 2026 🇮🇹 (2.WWT) WE – Stage 3 – Bibione – Buja : 156 km
Giro d’Italia Women is a UCI Women’s WorldTour classification that stands as one of the most prestigious and demanding stage races in women’s cycling,
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June 1, 2026
37th Giro d’Italia Women 2026 🇮🇹 (2.WWT) WE – Stage 3 – Bibione – Buja : 156 km
Giro d’Italia Women is a UCI Women’s WorldTour classification that stands as one of the most prestigious and demanding stage races in women’s cycling, traversing the diverse and breathtaking landscapes of Italy. The course is a masterful blend of high-altitude mountain passes, rolling hills, and fast, technical descents, with each stage designed to test a different facet of a rider’s ability. The mountainous stages are the race’s centerpiece, featuring legendary climbs with gradients often exceeding 10% on narrow, winding roads that snake through the Alps and Dolomites. These ascents are long and grueling, with irregular pitches, exposed sections, and thin air at higher altitudes amplifying the effort required to maintain pace. The descents are equally challenging, with tight hairpins and uneven surfaces demanding precision and courage. The race dynamics are shaped by these relentless climbs, where attacks often launch on the steepest sections, thinning the peloton to a select group of elite climbers. The flatter stages, while less decisive, are far from straightforward, with crosswinds and technical run-ins through historic towns or along coastal roads adding layers of complexity. The final kilometers of key stages often feature a decisive climb or a fast, technical finish, where a reduced group of riders contests the line in a sprint or a solo escapee holds off the chasers by a narrow margin. The Giro d’Italia Women is a race that rewards climbing prowess, tactical intelligence, and resilience, embodying the grandeur and challenge of Italy’s most iconic roads.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia Women, taking another sprint victory in the maglia rosa ahead of Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) and Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) in an uphill sprint in Buja.
After the GC favourites split the race on the Montenars climb, a reduced peloton came back together on the run-in to the finish.
A flurry of attacks eventually saw Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) get away with 6.6km to go. The Norwegian had an advantage of up to eight seconds but was in view of the chasing peloton on the finishing straight where the last 500mwere uphill.
Lily Williams launched a long sprint at the 300m mark and flew past Haugset to take the lead, but Balsamo went after her and came around with 120m to go to take another victory.
“Today was such a hard day in the final. I still need to recover. Once again, my team did an amazing job, they were pulling the whole day to close on the breakaway. And in the final, Niamh [Fisher-Black] and Bella [Holmgren], our GC leaders, were helping me. I knew this sprint because I did the recon, so I was ready, but I’m also a bit surprised and super happy,” said Balsamo after the finish.
With the stage victory, Balsamo defended and extended her overall lead going into the stage 4 mountain time trial.
“My big goal today was to try to keep the pink jersey, and I was fighting, I gave it all. The climb was so hard for me, but I knew that it was a long way until the finish. I really tried to fight to stay with a group, then we came back, and everything was perfect,” she said.
How it unfolded
The 156km stage started in Bibione on the Adriatic coast and wound its way north through the Friuli. It finished with a 43.4km circuit around Buja, hometown of Jonathan Milan and Alessandro De Marchi, that included the steep 1.9km climb to Montenars.
A breakaway of six riders got established early on the stage: Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), Eleonora Deotto (Mendelspeck E-Work), Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime), Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Marta Pavesi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) quickly built a three-minute gap.
Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Petra Zsankó (Aromitalia-Vaiano) briefly tried to bridge to the front group but soon gave up and dropped back to the peloton again. Tonetti won the intermediate sprint in Villa Manin di Passariano after 51km of racing, but as the first climb of the day came closer, the speed in the peloton picked up. A crash almost brought down Balsamo, but she managed to stay on the bike.
Jackson, Pavesi, and Tonetti dropped their three companions on the climb to Moruzzo with 60.4km to go, and Jackson took the mountain points at the top. The peloton was only 50 seconds behind, though, and as they passed through the finish in Buja, this gap was down to 33 seconds. Thalita De Jong (Human Powered Health) crashed hard but could finish the stage, Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) also.
The break was reeled in 26.1km from the finish, just before the Montenars climb started. Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) took charge and set a hard tempo. When Gery swung off 500m from the top, only Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Niamh Fisher-Black, Isabella Holmgren (both Lidl-Trek), Femke de Vries, Marion Bunel (both Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lore De Schepper (AG Insurance-Soudal) were left at the front of the race.
300m from the top, Vollering’s acceleration reduced the group further as only Longo Borghini, Van der Breggen, and Reusser could follow, with De Vries and Fisher-Black a few seconds behind. Van der Breggen led the group over the mountain sprint and into the descent while Balsamo crested the climb 44 seconds behind.
De Vries, Fisher-Black, and Holmgren came back to the front in the descent, then De Schepper and Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) returned before De Vries launched a short-lived attack. On a short climb through the city of Gemona del Friuli, the epicentre of the 1976 Friuli earthquake, a large chase group including maglia rosa Balsamo made it back to form a peloton of almost 50 riders.
The last 15km saw unsuccessful attacks from Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic PostNL), Maya Kingma (Aromitalia Vaiano), Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez), Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health), Aude Biannic, Tota Magalhães (both Movistar), and Rosita Reijnhout (Visma-Lease a Bike) before Haugset got away.
The 27-year-old Norwegian took a five-second advantage onto the final kilometre but was caught when Lily Williams accelerated from the peloton on the uphill finishing straight. Balsamo then passed Williams to win the stage.
Results :
 WE - Stage 3 </strong> - Bibione - Buja : 156 km
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Giro d’Italia Women is a UCI Women’s WorldTour classification that stands as one of the most prestigious and demanding stage races in women’s cycling, traversing the diverse and breathtaking landscapes of Italy. The course is a masterful blend of high-altitude mountain passes, rolling hills, and fast, technical descents, with each stage designed to test a different facet of a rider’s ability. The mountainous stages are the race’s centerpiece, featuring legendary climbs with gradients often exceeding 10% on narrow, winding roads that snake through the Alps and Dolomites. These ascents are long and grueling, with irregular pitches, exposed sections, and thin air at higher altitudes amplifying the effort required to maintain pace. The descents are equally challenging, with tight hairpins and uneven surfaces demanding precision and courage. The race dynamics are shaped by these relentless climbs, where attacks often launch on the steepest sections, thinning the peloton to a select group of elite climbers. The flatter stages, while less decisive, are far from straightforward, with crosswinds and technical run-ins through historic towns or along coastal roads adding layers of complexity. The final kilometers of key stages often feature a decisive climb or a fast, technical finish, where a reduced group of riders contests the line in a sprint or a solo escapee holds off the chasers by a narrow margin. The Giro d’Italia Women is a race that rewards climbing prowess, tactical intelligence, and resilience, embodying the grandeur and challenge of Italy’s most iconic roads.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia Women, taking another sprint victory in the maglia rosa ahead of Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) and Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) in an uphill sprint in Buja.
After the GC favourites split the race on the Montenars climb, a reduced peloton came back together on the run-in to the finish.
A flurry of attacks eventually saw Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) get away with 6.6km to go. The Norwegian had an advantage of up to eight seconds but was in view of the chasing peloton on the finishing straight where the last 500mwere uphill.
Lily Williams launched a long sprint at the 300m mark and flew past Haugset to take the lead, but Balsamo went after her and came around with 120m to go to take another victory.
"Today was such a hard day in the final. I still need to recover. Once again, my team did an amazing job, they were pulling the whole day to close on the breakaway. And in the final, Niamh [Fisher-Black] and Bella [Holmgren], our GC leaders, were helping me. I knew this sprint because I did the recon, so I was ready, but I’m also a bit surprised and super happy," said Balsamo after the finish.
With the stage victory, Balsamo defended and extended her overall lead going into the stage 4 mountain time trial.
"My big goal today was to try to keep the pink jersey, and I was fighting, I gave it all. The climb was so hard for me, but I knew that it was a long way until the finish. I really tried to fight to stay with a group, then we came back, and everything was perfect," she said.
<strong>How it unfolded</strong>
The 156km stage started in Bibione on the Adriatic coast and wound its way north through the Friuli. It finished with a 43.4km circuit around Buja, hometown of Jonathan Milan and Alessandro De Marchi, that included the steep 1.9km climb to Montenars.
A breakaway of six riders got established early on the stage: Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), Eleonora Deotto (Mendelspeck E-Work), Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime), Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Marta Pavesi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) quickly built a three-minute gap.
Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Petra Zsankó (Aromitalia-Vaiano) briefly tried to bridge to the front group but soon gave up and dropped back to the peloton again. Tonetti won the intermediate sprint in Villa Manin di Passariano after 51km of racing, but as the first climb of the day came closer, the speed in the peloton picked up. A crash almost brought down Balsamo, but she managed to stay on the bike.
Jackson, Pavesi, and Tonetti dropped their three companions on the climb to Moruzzo with 60.4km to go, and Jackson took the mountain points at the top. The peloton was only 50 seconds behind, though, and as they passed through the finish in Buja, this gap was down to 33 seconds. Thalita De Jong (Human Powered Health) crashed hard but could finish the stage, Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) also.
The break was reeled in 26.1km from the finish, just before the Montenars climb started. Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) took charge and set a hard tempo. When Gery swung off 500m from the top, only Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Niamh Fisher-Black, Isabella Holmgren (both Lidl-Trek), Femke de Vries, Marion Bunel (both Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lore De Schepper (AG Insurance-Soudal) were left at the front of the race.
300m from the top, Vollering’s acceleration reduced the group further as only Longo Borghini, Van der Breggen, and Reusser could follow, with De Vries and Fisher-Black a few seconds behind. Van der Breggen led the group over the mountain sprint and into the descent while Balsamo crested the climb 44 seconds behind.
De Vries, Fisher-Black, and Holmgren came back to the front in the descent, then De Schepper and Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) returned before De Vries launched a short-lived attack. On a short climb through the city of Gemona del Friuli, the epicentre of the 1976 Friuli earthquake, a large chase group including maglia rosa Balsamo made it back to form a peloton of almost 50 riders.
The last 15km saw unsuccessful attacks from Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic PostNL), Maya Kingma (Aromitalia Vaiano), Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez), Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health), Aude Biannic, Tota Magalhães (both Movistar), and Rosita Reijnhout (Visma-Lease a Bike) before Haugset got away.
The 27-year-old Norwegian took a five-second advantage onto the final kilometre but was caught when Lily Williams accelerated from the peloton on the uphill finishing straight. Balsamo then passed Williams to win the stage.
<strong>Results : </strong>
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Hi don’t know where else to comment but watching it from the phone, the videos randomly reload mid stream making it impossible to watch. It happens in many option 1s for many videos (if not all) including Vuelta 2025 stage 6. Thanks!