Gigante claims women's Giro stage 7, Longo Borghini in pink

Australia's Sarah Gigante won the queen stage of the women's Giro d'Italia on Saturday, as home hope Elisa Longo Borghini came in second to move into the overall race lead.

Having broken away from the group of favourites on the final climb up Monte Nerone, the 24-year-old caught up and then dropped Longo Borghini 2.5km from the summit to win the seventh stage in a gruelling 4hrs 44mins 14sec.

"Two stage wins is an impressive result," said Gigante who also won the fourth stage on Wednesday.

"Today I felt good – I had studied the final climb and decided to attack on the steep section.

"I wanted to show that stage four wasn't just a one-off, but that I came to Italy to achieve great results. I'm really grateful to my team."

Longo Borghini took second place in the stage, 45sec behind Gigante.

But the reigning champion now has her hands on the leader's pink jersey as she sits 22sec clear of Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, ahead of the rugged 134km final stage between Forli and Imola on Sunday.

Having broken away from the pink jersey group on a short descent on the approach to the final climb, the 33-year-old Italian took advantage of the work of her teammate Silvia Persico to open up a lead of up to a minute over Reusser.

However, Reusser dug in and took advantage of the work of the other riders in her company to limit the damage and cross the finish line 32sec behind the Italian.