Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) took the biggest win of her career as she out-sprinted Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) and Franziska Koch (dsm-firmenich-Post NL) to win the final stage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women after the trio escaped the peloton in the final 40 kilometres.
Behind, Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) put in an impressive surge in the last 200 metres to gap world champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and win the overall classification.
The day had started with Kopecky just one second behind Longo Borghini in the fight for the pink jersey. It was a tense and tactical day of racing as Kopecky looked to overhaul her rival, but Longo Borghini was too strong in the end.
Longo Borghini takes home the Maglia Rosa for the first time in her career. It’s a victory she has long coveted and she was proud of the team’s performance after the finish.
“Everyone in the team was super motivated to keep the Maglia Rosa and to keep the leadership,” Longo Borghini said. “All the teammates did an amazing job. Everyone was so committed, so thank you very much.”
“I’m 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. It was so special because my husband came this morning. He started around 2:30am to be at the start and he was then here. I just wanted to cross the line with the Maglia Rosa and to show everybody I was the strongest and the Lidl-Trek is the strongest team.”
It had been a closely fought battle all week between Longo Borghini and Kopecky. The Italian admitted that she relished beating the Belgian superstar on home roads.
“Today I really wanted to give it back to Kopecky because she made me a bit upset, now I can say that, yesterday. I was nervous today in a very good way and I was like, I’m going to crack you no matter what.”
Mauritian Le Court was one of the revelations of the spring classics this season, having moved over from racing on the mountain bike in recent years.
More to come