Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) will start stage 8 of the Giro Rosa wearing the pink leader's jersey after Annemiek Van Fruten (Mitchelton-Scott) abandoned the race on Friday due to a broken wrist. Leading the race in this manner is undesirable for anyone, but Nieniadma will have to defend the pink jersey for the remaining two stages despite having to lead the race in a surprising and unfortunate manner.

"The last 3km were very hectic. There was a big crash with 1.2km to go. I was on the right side and everything happened on the left side, so fortunately I was able to avoid it, but I really hope everyone involved in the crash is okay," Nieviadma said.

The Polish climber sprinted to third place on stage 7, gaining a bonus four seconds that could be very important given the close gap to Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans). Van der Breggen, who was in second place overall after the second stage, lost 22 seconds in the uphill finish of stage 4 in Tivoli, giving Niewiadoma a 7-second advantage.

On stage 6, Niewiadoma led teammate Hannah Burns in a sprint finish and almost accidentally increased her time. While Burns finished second, Niewadoma finished 10th; the gap that opened up after 15th meant that the 25-year-old Canyon-SRAM leader was four seconds ahead of most of the other overall contenders.

Adding the 4-second bonus from stage 7, Niewiadoma heads into stage 8 15 seconds ahead of Van der Breggen and 1:15 ahead of Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope).

The final stage will take the riders to the hilltop town of San Marco La Catra after a steep 5.6 km climb to the finish line. The first 3.3 km is an uphill climb averaging 12.5 percent, followed by a slight downhill for the next 1 km. The last 1.3 km climbs through the town, again uphill at up to 8%.

Niewiadoma, Van der Breggen, and Uttrup Ludwig are some of the best punchers in the world, and the past seven stages have confirmed that they are evenly matched. So far, none of the three has been able to consistently pull away from the other two. Niewiadoma has the best card, but the race is wide open once again, and the finish climb on stage 8 and the mountain circuit on stage 9 will determine the winner of this Giro Rosa.