Antonia Niedermeier (Canyon-SRAM) took her first women's WorldTour victory on stage 5 of the Giro Donne and moved into second place overall behind Annemiek van Fruten (Movistar).

In a solo victory and the biggest win of her career, the 20-year-old crossed the finish line in Ceres just 9 seconds ahead of second-place Van Hulten.

"I am so happy with this win. I really can't believe it! The pace on the first climb was really hard and I fell behind the leading group. Luckily we had a good group and tried to catch the leaders," Niedermeier explained the details that led to his solo victory.

"I knew that if I wanted to try something, I just had to do it. I was happy to pick my line on the descent and kept pushing on the climb. I felt really strong until the last 1.5 km. In the car, the sport directors were pushing me and motivating me.

"In the last few hundred meters I couldn't hear the spectators or anything, I just wanted to finish.

Niedermeier joined the Canyon-Slam Generation program in 2022 and moved to the Canyon-Slam World Team this season.

She was added to the Canyon-Slam roster for this year's nine-day Giro d'Italia Donne.

The German all-rounder was part of a selection that broke away from the main group at Cima Coppi and Passo del Lupo, whose group of nine broke apart but eventually reconnected with 35 km to go.

Niedermeier attacked on the final climb and rode alone to the summit. Van Werten and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) began to chase, but both took risks on the final descent and crashed in the same corner.

Van Vleuten finished second on the day, extending her lead in the overall standings. Longo Borghini finished the stage 7:33 behind and was taken to the hospital for medical checks.

Niedermeier's performance moved her up 12 places to second overall. Veronica Evers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) remains in third place overall by 2:18. Niedermeier is also the leader of the Giro Donne's Best Young Athlete category.

"I never thought this would happen and I am so happy to get the Best Young Rider jersey. I want to thank the staff for all their hard work."