Giro d'Italia Women Stage 7 LIVE - Elisa Longo Borghini moves into maglia rosa as Sarah Gigante picks up second stage win

Sarah Gigante claimed her second win of the 2025 Giro d’Italia Women, as defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini put herself into pole position to retain the maglia rosa in a stunning lesson in tactics.

Overnight leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar) went into the queen stage with a 16" lead over the Italian national road race champion - but after completely ripping up the rulebook, it is Longo Borghini who will head into the final stage of the Grand Tour in the leader’s jersey.

Whilst many expected the final climb to Monte Nerone to be the moment things kicked off, it was unexpectedly an uncategorised climb in the shape of Fosto (3.6km at 6.2%) which changed the course of this race.

A surge in pace saw the likes of Juliette Labous (FDJ-SUEZ) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) dropped, before the following descent saw Longo Borghini, her UAE ADQ team-mate Silvia Persico and Liane Lippert (Movistar) open up a surprise gap, with the trio deciding to push on.

The original breakaway of Mijntje Geurts (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) was eventually reeled in, with Lidl-Trek’s Shirin van Anrooij the only surviving member at the front of the race.

After an extraordinary effort by Persico to open Longo-Borghini’s advantage to over a minute with 10km to go, it was eventually time for the defending champion to go solo up the final categorised climb of the day in Monte Nerone (Cat. 1, 14.8km at 6.6%), reaching Van Arooij and moving to the head of the race.

With the maglia rosa and stage win in sight for the Italian, there was to be yet another twist with 6km to go, as Stage 4 winner Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) attacked the maglia rosa group, hunting for a place on the podium.

Not long after, the Australian rider reached the front before soloing clear to claim her second win of the race, with Longo Borghini coming through in second and claiming six bonus points to move to the head of the race as Reusser saw her reign slip from her grasp.

We've reached the final stage of the 2025 Giro d'Italia but there's little time to shed a tear, with a challenging hilly circuit in the Italian city of Imola to decide this year's second Grand Tour of the year.

The riders will enter the same circuit used for the 2020 UCI Road World Championships and will tackle it four times, with the demanding climbs of Cima Gallisterna (2.1km at 7.3%) and Mazzolano (2.6km at 6.8%), before reaching the Dino Ferrari Autodrome.

Could we see one final twist in the general classification standings tomorrow?

1. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE ADQ) 20:56:48

2. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) +0'22"

3. Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) +1'11"

4. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +2'55"

5. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) +3'07"

6. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +3'46"

7. Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) +3'54"

8. Urska Zigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) +4'32"

9. Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) +4'44"

10. Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) +5'01"

1. Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) 4:44:14

2. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE ADQ) +0'45"

3. Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) +1'14"

4. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) +1'17"

5. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) +ST

6. Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) +1'21"

7. Urska Zigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) +1'37"

8. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix Deceuninck) +1'48"

9. Evita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) +2'17"

10. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +2'48"

Despite pedalling to limit her loses, Marlen Reusser finishes fourth, 32" down on Longo Borghini, which means the maglia rosa will change hands ahead of tomorrow's finale.

Riding herself onto the podium, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) picks up her second stage of this years' Giro on the Queen stage and more importantly, moves herself into the top three.

Borghini finishes 48" down on Gigante in second but will pick up bonus seconds.

The duo of Elisa Longo Borghini and Sarah Gigante have reached the final kilometre and the 12% but there's no respite as the riders face gradients of 8%.

Gigante still has a healthy 30" advantage over Longo Borghini, with the Italian 47" ahead over Reusser, who has finally come to the front of the reduced group to close the gap.

She's going for the stage and a potential podium.

Sarah Gigante has attacked the defending champion but there doesn't appear to be any panic just yet as she holds a 45" advantage over Reusser.

We look to be in store for a huge shake-up in GC, with Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) all missing out.

Gigante reaches Longo Borghini but decides to stay on the Italian's wheel as the duo's gap reaches 48", with the Australian riding herself onto the podium.

She makes the catch and just like that, she drops the Lidl Trek rider. This is now Elisa Longo Borghini's race to lose, as she has a 1'00" gap over Marlen Reusser.

Our lone chaser Sarah Gigante has also caught van Arooij and she can see the stage win in sight with Longo Borghini just 21" ahead.

As we reached 6km to go, Shirin van Anrooij is seeing her advantage over the defending champion come down to just 35".

Whilst in the maglia rosa group, we suddenly see Mareille Meijering (Movistar) call it a day and the peloton splitting as Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) attacking from the rest of the bunch.

There's no reaction from Reusser just but it appears the four-time Giro champion Anna van der Breggen, who's currently sitting in third, has been dropped.

Liane Lippert branches off the peloton, which means Marlen Reusser (Movistar) is down to just one teammate as the gap remains nearly a minute.

The pace at the front has meant the peloton is being split to pieces and we're seeing a reduced maglia rosa group, but the key GC contenders look to still be here.

There's been no let off by the Italian national champion as she closes the gap on Shirin van Anrooij to 1'21" but more crucially, opens a gap of almost a minute on the maglia rosa.

A long way to go and the steepest parts of this climb still to come but this is going to be a fascinating watch.

She's absolutely turned herself inside out as Silvia Persico (UAE ADQ) rolls off the front and gives her teammate one last bit of encouragement.

Shortly after that, our defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini attacks Lippert, who decides to drop back to join her Movistar teammates in order to defend the maglia rosa.

The group of Elisa Longo Borghini has opened a gap over 30" as Silvia Persico is absolutely destroying herself for her UAE ADQ teammate.

As a result, they have caught and quickly pass our original breakaway duo of Ostolaza and Geurts, with Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) still 2'29" ahead of the chasers.

The peloton have still not closed that gap to the trio of Longo Borghini, Persico and Lippert as we head towards the final categorised climb of the day.

But are the tactics being played to perfection? According to co-commentator Dani Rowe, Longo Borghini could be exhausting her UAE ADQ teammate Persico before the ascent, whilst Marlen Reusser is deciding to save her Movistar teammates for later.

This is an interesting move on the descent of that uncategorised climb as Elisa Longo Borghini and Siliva Persico (UAE ADQ) open a gap on the peloton and our maglia rosa.

Liane Lippert (Movistar), who took Stage 6 yesterday, has managed to stay with them to keep an eye on things and it looks like the peloton will come back together, with Movistar closing the gap.

It's been a long day in no man's land for Celia Gery (FDJ-SUEZ) but it looks like she's finally going to get company as the peloton begins the descent and closes in on the lone French rider.