It all boiled down to the last 150 metres. After 876 km and 8 days of battles, the last 150 metres was what it took for this Giro d’Italia Women 2024 to finally crown a winner. Victory went to that rider who had led the race overall from start to finish, who was even moved to tears after winning the opening time trial in Brescia. But that’s what that jersey is like, a dream, no matter how prestigious one’s career already is.

Elisa Longo Borghini has won the Giro and has done so with heart, legs and head, defending herself from the attacks of an extraordinary Lotte Kopecky, and exploding in those final 150 metres all the tension accumulated over the last few days. A deadly progression, which delivers her straight into the history of this sport.

The stunning Abruzzo scenery, between Pescara and L’Aquila, gave us a highly tense last act, with that shaky second inevitably affecting the entire course of the stage. Longo Borghini was keen to let the breakaway go, Kopecky wanted to keep the race closed and then play for time bonuses, and all the others were forced to act as mere extras in this exciting showdown.

After the climb of Castel del Monte, SD Worx were left with only Niamh Fisher-Black supporting Kopecky, and that was when the decisive action began, the one that took the bonus points out of the way: Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), Franziska Koch (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) broke away from the Maglia Rosa group and were only seen again after the finish line. Having realised that the fugitives would not be caught, Kopecky wisely opted to play it all out on the finishing uphill straight of Acquasanta, hoping to build up a gap of at least two seconds on Longo Borghini.

Elisa, however, did not lose a metre, held the Belgian’s wheel until the last 150 metres, and then sprinted away from Kopecky with all the strength and energy she had left in her body and went on to take the Giro d’Italia, which had not been won by an Italian woman since 2008.

Making the day even more historic was stage winner Kim Le Court, who won a three-up sprint and gave Mauritius an unexpected and, to say the least, unusual success. The very first edition of the RCS Sport Giro d’Italia Women will hardly be forgotten.