Elisa Longo Borghini proves all doubters wrong and wins Giro d'Italia Women ahead of Lotte Kopecky and Neve Bradbury
Cycling
A bit in the shadow of the on-going Tour de France, Elisa Longo Borghini claimed an achievement that shouldn't be overlooked, as the Italian won her first Giro d'Italia Women.
The Lidl-Trek leader entered the final stage with just one second advantage over Lotte Kopecky who promised to give it her best shot to take over the pink jersey in L'Aquila. Conveniently for Longo Borghini, a breakaway of three held off the peloton, removing all bonus seconds from the equation. Then it was only to the Italian lady to not get dropped by her Belgian counterpart in the final uphill kilometer.
As a mental support, her husband had already gotten up at 2:30 to go to the starting point in Pescara. "I wanted to show that I was the strongest and cross the finish line with the pink jersey," said the Italian at Sporza afterwards.
"People doubted me," she notices. "They said: Kopecky will outsprint you. But everyone in the team was very motivated to keep the pink jersey. Everyone did a great job. I am very proud to take the overall win in Italy. It will take some time for it to sink in what I have achieved today."
Longo Borghini had to be constantly on her guard against counterattacks from Lotte Kopecky. In the final kilometre the world champion made one last attempt, but was able to parry the pink jersey with a counterattack. "I like the adrenaline," she said. "If it's one second, I like a duel. When I see the line, I charge it like a bull on a red rag. I also wanted to give something back to Kopecky. She had upset me a bit yesterday, I can admit that now. I was nervous, but in a positive way," Longo Borhini confides. "I thought: I'm going to crack you."
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