In her 13th participation, Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) won the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women, leading the race overall from start to finish. Going into the final stage with a one-second lead over Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), Longo Borghini followed Kopecky’s wheel on the Acquasanta climb with 4km to go.
A break of three riders took the bonus seconds, with Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) winning the sprint for the stage win ahead of Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) and Franzi Koch (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), and on the finishing straight, Longo Borghini sprinted away from Kopecky to finish fourth on the day and secure the maglia rosa.
“Now it’s mine. Today we started, and people were doubting, they were like, ‘Oh, Kopecky will outsprint you’, and I was like, ‘We have one per cent of the chances to win, we have one second’,” said Longo Borghini before thanking her teammates and staff.
“Everyone in the team was super-motivated to keep the maglia rosa, all my teammates did an amazing job and everyone was so committed, so thank you very much.”
The 32-year-old is the first Italian winner of the Giro d’Italia Women since Fabiana Luperini in 2008, and the importance was not lost on her.
“I am really proud to wear this maglia rosa in Italy with the Lidl-Trek jersey on. I will need some time to realise what I’ve been doing,” said Longo Borghini.
“It was so special because my husband came this morning, he started around 2:30 tonight to be here, and I just wanted to cross the line with the maglia rosa to show everyone that I was the strongest and that Lidl-Trek is the strongest team.”