Elisa Longo Borghini wanted this win the most. With a lead of just one second going into the final stage, the 32-year-old Italian was laser-focused on retaining the pink jersey that had been on her back since the beginning of the Giro d'Italia.
This year’s race has spawned a new rivalry within the women’s peloton between Longo Borghini and world champion Lotte Kopecky. The two are very similar riders – both Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix winners – but Kopecky’s climbing abilities in the high mountains were in doubt coming into the race. After Saturday’s Blockhaus summit finish, such performances from the Belgian can no longer be considered anomalous. The 28-year-old convincingly out-sprinted Longo Borghini after a brutal climb to the summit to take the six bonus seconds that brought her within one second of the maglia rosa.
Longo Borghini wasn’t happy about it. “Today, I really wanted to give it back to Kopecky because she made me a bit upset yesterday,” the Italian admitted after the final stage. “Now I can say that. I was nervous today in a very good way and I was like ‘I’m going to crack you, no matter what.”
Kopecky was also passionate about chasing the jersey, calling the single second between herself and Longo Borghini “stupid” after stage seven, but Longo Borghini’s killer instinct was fully engaged while Kopecky admitted before Sunday’s final battle that she had “nothing to lose.”
Longo Borghini’s strength and will may have won out at the finish line, but the teamwork that laid the foundations for her to unleash that sprint made the difference too. While it was in the interest of SD Worx-Protime to keep the race together in order for Kopecky to mop up bonus seconds on the line, Lidl-Trek were in the business of getting a breakaway of at least three riders up the road to nullify those same bonuses.
“Today we started and people were doubting, they were like ‘Kopecky will out sprint you’ and I was like ‘we have 1% chance to win we are one second,” said Longo Borghini. “Everyone in the team was super motivated to keep the maglia rosa and keep leadership.”
The team put Lucinda Brand up ahead earlier on in the race, forcing SD Worx, including Kopecky herself, to chase. When that move came back there were multiple other attacks as riders went in search of the stage win and Kopecky was active in closing those gaps too. It was a rare instance of SD Worx being on the back foot as the only team with a real interest in keeping the race together but the odds were in the breakaway’s favour and Kim Le Court, Ruth Edwards, and Franziska Koch capitalised on that.
With just Niamh Fisher-Black left in the group for Kopecky and little help coming from other teams the bonus seconds went up the road leaving the fate of the pink jersey up to either Kopecky or Longo Borghini being able to force a gap.
Longo Borghini may have been told that Kopecky would out sprint her but the Italian was determined not to let that happen, staying true to her word that she would: “defend this jersey until like 30 metres after the finish line.” The maglia rosa catapulted herself from the chase group with 200 metres to go, never once looking back. Kopecky, after all of her previous efforts, had no response leaving Longo Borghini with a 21-second gap.
“I like the thrill, I like the adrenaline. When it’s about one second I like the head-to-head fight and I like to fight until the end,” said Longo Borghini. “When I see the finish line I just see red like a bull and I just want to go straight to it.”
After over a decade of trying and an annus horribilis in 2023 that saw her crash out of the Giro and battle through multiple illnesses – including a sepsis infection that forced her out of the Tour de France Femmes – Longo Borghini has finally claimed the win at her home Grand Tour.
With a steely look to the camera, her first words in her post-race interview encompassed it all: “Now it’s mine.”
