The 2020 race winner broke free from a small group with eight kilometres to go on the final climb to take the win and the maglia rosa, followed by Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who finished a minute and 22 seconds behind for second and Demi Vollering who came in at a minute and 51 seconds down in third.
Amanda Spratt (Team BikeExchange) was the top finisher of the Aussies, crossing the line in eighth place at 3 minutes and 5 seconds behind van der Breggen.
After finishing second behind Trek-Segafredo in yesterday's team time trial, SD Worx came out with a point to prove and completely ruled over the day all the way through to the mountaintop finish, which van der Breggen revealed was a testing one.
“It is an amazing result, but the climb was hard," Van der Breggen said.
"There was a lot of suffering. We had one task today, and that was getting as much time as possible. The next stages are easier to control when you have more time, so we all tried the best."
The start of the stage saw scarce attacks, with the peloton riding conservatively until a small group formed over the top of the Colle del Morte made up of Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), Kathrin Hammes (Ceratizit-WNT), Sofia Bertizzolo (Liv Racing) and Coryn Rivera.
The quartet managed to extend the gap out to 43 seconds on the peloton with 22 kilometres to go, until they were caught at the start of the ascent of Colle del Prel as Trek-Segafredo started their attack led by Ruth Winder, who started the day in the maglia rosa.
Winder was dropped shortly after though, as 15 riders emerged at the front with 10 kilometres to go before van der Breggen attacked with Moolman-Pasio not far behind and a group of six with Vollering, Spratt, Mavi Garcia (Ale BTC Ljubljiana), Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Erica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT) and and Gaia Realini (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria) in pursuit.
The front two remained unchallenged for first and second before Vollering sprinted free from Cavalli in the finale to take third place and cap off a perfect day for SD Worx, 1-2-3 on the podium and GC heading into Stage 3's 135 kilometre journey from Casale Monferrato to Ovada.
Watch the highlights from the Giro d'Italia Donne on SBS from 3:30pm weekends or 4pm weekdays (July 3-12) or available earlier via SBS On Demand and the Cycling Central website.
