On the penultimate stage of the Giro d’Italia Women, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) could finally exchange her Italian champion’s jersey for the only jersey that was even dearer to her - the maglia rosa of the Giro’s overall leader.
She attacked with her teammate Silvia Persico on a descent ahead of the finishing climb up the Monte Nerone, taking a margin of almost a minute ahead of the peloton at one point. Longo Borghini saw that lead erased when eventual stage winner Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) caught and passed her near the top of the 14.8km ascent.
Longo Borghini held on to finish in second place and take the GC lead from Marlen Reusser (Movistar).
“I just did my pace [on the climb]. Maybe I overdid it at the beginning, and I paid for that in the last 2 to 3km. But sometimes you just have to dare, you just have to go,” Longo Borghini said after receiving the pink jersey on the podium.
The move that separated Longo Borghini, Persico and Liane Lippert (Movistar) from the peloton with 22km to go was a curious one, and Longo Borghini explained that the attack hadn’t been planned at all.
“Silvia and I just wanted to have control in the downhill, and apparently, we went a bit too fast. We had a small gap and were like, ‘just ride it’. I was telling Silvia, ‘ride it and then we see what the peloton has to do’. If we start with one foot in front, it's always better,” she said.
Longo Borghini was an embodiment of grit and determination as she fought to keep as much of her lead as possible. Her nephew shouted encouragement to her on the final kilometre, and she hugged him and other family members in attendance after the finish, crying tears of joy.
Her walk to the podium was accompanied by many shouts of ‘brava’ from the Italian spectators.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Longo Borghini described her feelings. “I really need to thank all my teammates today, they were amazing today and the whole week. We built towards this Giro together. We went on the same training camps, we shared the good moments and the bad ones, and I would like to give this jersey to them because it’s ours. Another heartfelt thanks goes to Paolo Slongo, my coach, because he did believe in it more than me, and to my husband, Jacopo [Mosca],” she said.
Going into the final stage that finishes with 3.5 laps of the 2020 World Championships circuit around Imola, Longo Borghini is 22 seconds ahead Reusser, and she is well aware that the overall victory is far from secure yet.
“We want to stay humble and keep our feet on the ground. There's still a very hard stage tomorrow. We will try to defend it to the blood – and why not attack it,” finished the new maglia rosa.
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