Rome (AFP) - Dutch rider Demi Vollering won the queen stage of the women’s Giro d’Italia on Saturday, shorn of the final 28 kilometres due to a slab of ice threatening to crash onto the road.

The eighth and penultimate stage had originally been set for a summit finish in Sestriere before organisers decided at the last minute to move the finish line to one kilometre below the Colle delle Finestre because of an “unstable ice slab threatening to fall onto the road”.

Initial ice had already been cleared shortly before the riders passed through the Italian Alps.

“It was just too dangerous,” said the organisers.

In the end, Vollering claimed her second victory of this Giro on a hastily improvised finish line.

“It was strange because the Finestre was suddenly the final climb. It was the weirdest finish line of my life, but I’m very happy to take the win,” said Vollering

She edged out Canada’s Isabella Holmgren, Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier, and fellow Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen in a four-way sprint finish.

Van der Breggen leads pre-race favourite Vollering by 50sec, and Niedermaier at 1min20sec in the overall standings for the pink jersey.

“We hoped that we could get closer to the maglia rosa today,” said Vollering.

“Tomorrow’s stage is not as hard as today’s stage, but we will make a plan this evening and think about how to try to win the Giro,” she added.

Van der Breggen will embark in the pink jersey on the eve of the final stage over 145km around Saluzzo at the foot of the Alps in northwestern Italy.