Mara Abbot Wins Giro Ciclistico Internazionale Femminile

Mara Abbot (US National Team; Boulder, Colo./Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY 12) became the first American woman to bring home the pink jersey of the Giro Ciclistico Internazionale Femminile, the "Giro Donne".

“It is so meaningful to be able to win the Giro," Abbott said. "This is one of the biggest races on the calendar for women, and I am so honored to be able to take the victory for America with my team. I feel so lucky to have been a part of the Giro Donne this year, and I can't even believe that I have the honor of taking home a pink jersey! The courses were amazing. It was so special to have the opportunity to win at the top of a climb like Stelvio. I came into the Giro knowing inside that I had the strength to win but that I would need luck, my team and a lot of mental fortitude. All of these things came through for me to an even greater extent than I ever could have imagined."

Abbot soloed to wins in stages 8 and 9 (Stelvio) and finished in the main pack in today's final stage 10 in Monza to win the race’s general classification.

Supporting Abbott in Italy and integral in the USA Cycling Women's National Development Program’s success were Amanda Miller (Fort Collins, Colo./Team TIBCO), Carmen Small (Durango, Colo./Colavita-BACI p/b Cooking Light), Sinead Miller (Pittsburgh, Pa./Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12), Alison Starnes (Mill Valley, Calif./Team TIBCO), Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Cedar Springs, Mich./Colavita-BACI p/b Cooking Light), Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif./Webcor Builders), who was in seventh overall before a stage 9 crash, and Evans. Riding for her HTC-Columbia squad, American Evelyn Stevens (New York, N.Y/HTC-Columbia) was the next best American GC finisher.


Top 10 GC:
1 Mara Abbot (USA) US National Team 25:15:54
2 Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:02:05
3 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Team Valdarno 0:03:05
4 Claudia Häusler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0:05:26
5 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:07:29
6 Eivgenia Vysotska (Ukr) Team Valdarno 0:08:23
7 Marianne Vos (Ned) Netherlands National Team 0:09:24
8 Tatiana Antoshina (Rus) Team Valdarno 0:12:08
9 Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi - Pasta Zara 0:23:03
10 Elena Berlato (Ita) Top Girls Fassa Bortolo - Ghezzi 0:25:50

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