The defining squad of the race, even from a deficit. FDJ raced from behind for eight stages, using Lauren Dickson as a destroyer in the breakaways (Stage 5, Stage 9) and 20-year-old Célia Gery both as a finisher — she won Stage 7 — and a climbing helper. The whole plan was built around launching Vollering on the steepest terrain. It paid off twice: a first-ever Giro stage win at Santo Stefano di Cadore, the queen-stage win on the Finestre, and the final-day ambush that overturned van der Breggen's lead. Vollering left with the maglia rosa, the mountains jersey, and the women's Grand Tour Triple Crown.

SD Worx looked to have won the Giro through Anna van der Breggen, whose stunning Nevegal time trial took pink and whose defence held through a Stage 7 crash and the shortened Finestre stage. But the team could not protect her on Stage 9: helper Valentina Cavallar was distanced on the Montoso, leaving van der Breggen isolated when Vollering attacked on the final climb. She finished 3rd overall — a bitter end to a race she led from Stage 4 to the last day. Their early-race story was overshadowed by Lorena Wiebes's Stage 1 disqualification for an underweight bike.

Lidl - Trek owned the flat days and the secondary classifications. Elisa Balsamo won four stages (1 awarded after Wiebes's DQ, plus 2, 3 and 6 on the road) and the points jersey; Niamh Fisher-Black climbed to 5th overall and 2nd on the final stage; and 21-year-old Isabella Holmgren took the best-young-rider white jersey and finished 7th overall after a Stage 8 podium on the Finestre. The squad also won the teams classification — a hugely productive Giro short only of the maglia rosa.

Antonia Niedermaier rode the most aggressive GC race of anyone on the final day. After sitting in the top group all week, she attacked over the Montoso on Stage 9 with Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black, building enough of a gap to ride briefly into virtual pink before Vollering bridged across. She held on for 2nd overall at +0:30 — CANYON//SRAM's headline result of the race — with Chiara Consonni adding consistent top-10 sprint placings on the flat stages.

UAE Team ADQ built the race around Elisa Longo Borghini and finished it in style. The Italian champion was a constant aggressor — instigating the winning Stage 7 move that set up Gery, then attacking on Stage 9's Montoso and winning the final-stage sprint in Saluzzo. She finished 4th overall at +2:44, supported by Silvia Persico's climbing work and Lara Gillespie's sprinting (a Stage 7 bunch-sprint win behind the breakaway). A satisfying home Giro for the squad.

Movistar's Giro was a story of what might have been. Marlen Reusser was 2nd in the Nevegal time trial and sat 2nd overall after Stage 4, but faded on the high mountains — dropped on Stage 8's Finestre and again on Stage 9's Montoso — to finish well down on GC. The team also lost sprinter Cat Ferguson to an abandon after the crash-marred Stage 1. Reusser's TT remained the squad's highlight in a race that slipped away on the steepest climbs.

Visma's best GC result came from young climber Femke de Vries, who quietly rode into 6th overall at +5:07 with steady performances on the mountain stages (5th on both Stage 8 and Stage 9). With no win to show for the race, it was nonetheless a solid Grand Tour from a developing rider, with Nienke Veenhoven adding top-10 sprint placings on the flat days.