Dutch cycling star Annemiek van Vleuten has conquered the uphill time trial stage at the Giro Rosa to continue Mitchelton-Scott's domination at the race.
The Australian team has won four of the seven stages and van Vleuten has the overall lead after the world time trial champion crushed the rest of the field.
She clocked 46 minutes six seconds for the 15km time trial from Lanzada to Diga di Campo Moro and won the stage by a whopping 2:28.
Australian teammate Amanda Spratt handed over the race lead to van Vleuten and she is second overall, 2:53 behind van Vleuten with three stages left.
Spratt finished fifth in stage seven to stay in overall contention, while South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervelo-Bigla) was runner-up on the stage and is now one second behind Spratt in third place on the general classification.
The Dutch star's win came a day after she played a crucial support role for Spratt, who won stage six and took the overall lead.
"After yesterday's stage I was full of confidence and I feel really good - it's great all the hard work paid off," van Vleuten said.
"We're focused on the task in hand and we are taking it day by day.
"There is the Zoncolan coming up (on stage nine) and it's a very hard climb but we are riding very well and we can continue with confidence."
