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Cycling Weekly

Sport

Patrick Fletcher

Elisa Longo Borghini storms to time trial victory on stage 1 of Giro d'Italia Women

Longo Borghini Elisa Longo Borghini Grace Brown Giro Grace Brown FDJ Brodie Chapman Gaia Realini LidlTrek Lotte Kopecky Ruth Edwards

Elisa Longo Borghini on her way to victory in the stage 1 time trial at the Giro d'Italia Women.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) laid down a strong marker on the opening day of the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women, storming to victory in the stage 1 time trial in Brescia.

The Italian edged out Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) by a solitary second over the 15.7km course, while putting nearly half a minute into her main general classification rivals.

Longo Borghini’s teammate Brodie Chapman clinched the final spot on the day’s podium, finishing 13 seconds down, a result that was all-the-more impressive given the rainy conditions she had to endure.

Most of the top GC contenders had opted for early start times in a successful bid to dodge that rain, which would make the late descent from Brescia’s hill-top castle – featuring four hairpin bends on cobblestones – particularly treacherous.

Longo Borghini was the 15th rider down the ramp, at a time when the likes of Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), and Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) were already on the course. Brown would start three minutes after Longo Borghini, setting up a tense battle as the Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner clocked in at the intermediate checkpoint, after 6.6km, dead level on time.

After they’d climbed up to and descended down from Brescia’s castle, it was still on a knife edge but at the finish line Brown was left an agonising second short of Longo Borghini, who pulls on the first maglia rosa as the leader of the Giro d’Italia Women.

"It’s really emotional," said a tearful Longo Borghini, who has not only the first pink jersey of the race but also of her career, in this her 13th career appearance at the Giro. "For an Italian, wearing the maglia rosa, it’s a big deal. Maybe it’s only for one day, but I’ll be wearing the maglia rosa, and i’ve been dreaming of the maglia rosa for so long."

The GC differences

The 15.7km course in Brescia, in the north of Italy, which was largely flat an non-technical but for the climb and descent at the castle in the final third, produced a nail-bitingly tight finish between the top two but opened considerable gaps among the overall contenders.

Longo Borghini, who has twice finished on the podium at the Giro and arguably has her best-ever chance to win it, managed to put nearly half a minute into her main rivals. Kopecky may have her sights set on the Olympic Games but the road race world champion cannot be written off after finishing runner-up at last year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and finished 25 seconds down here on a stage where she'd have been expected to be in contention for the stage victory. There's no Demi Vollering here, with Niamh Fisher-Black being SD Worx's next-best finisher at 1:16 down.

Labous, another early starter, produced a strong ride to limit the damage to 29 seconds as she looks to her favoured terrain of the mountains later in the week. Likewise, Ruth Edwards and the rest of the riders in the top 10 will be very happy with their displays, but there are a number of big names with ground to make up.

In Gaia Realini, Lidl-Trek have a two-pronged GC challenge once again, and while the featherweight Italian climber will start the road stages at a deficit of one minute and eight seconds, she'll be relatively happy with a time that saw her placed 25th on the day.

Realini was quicker than Mavi García (Liv AlUla-Jayco), who conceded 1:20 to the winner, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ), who shipped a further two seconds, and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), who lost a damaging 1:37.

Over at Canyon-SRAM, who are without their usual GC leader Kasia Niewiadoma, the hotly-tipped Neve Bradbury, runner-up in the recent Tour de Suisse, shipped 1:48, leaving the impressive Antonia Niedermaier as the team's best-placed rider at 48 seconds.

The Giro d'Italia Women continues on Monday with a 110km stage from Sirmione to Volta Mantovana, which is largely flat but with some undulations in the final third.