Longo Borghini: “Oh man, I really won the Giro!”

It’s my first Grand Tour victory

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) came to the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women to win, and she did not disappoint. She held onto the leader’s pink jersey, the Maglia Rosa, from the first stage to the very end. The 32-year-old Italian is usually known for her successes in one-day-races, but she made her childhood dream come true by winning the general classification of her “home” stage race, 13 years after her first participation in the Giro d’Italia.

You are now a Giro d’Italia Women winner – how does that feel?

Elisa Longo Borghini (E.L.B.): It feels strange to me, to be honest. It’s my first Grand Tour victory, and it comes with the Giro d’Italia – being an Italian, I’m super proud of that. It was very special to wear the Maglia Rosa from the beginning to the end.

What kind of relationship did you build with this jersey?

E.L.B.: I always had a special relationship with the Maglia Rosa. I was always dreaming of wearing it, and keeping it until the final one day. As an Italian, you always watch the Giro d’Italia in May, and as a young kid, you dream of it. You look at the riders who are wearing the Maglia Rosa, and you’re like: ‘I want to be them, I want to be one of them one day’.

Do you already know what you are going to do with your trophy from this Giro d’Italia?

E.L.B.: We still have to find a place in the house where it can fit, but for the moment it’s next to the toaster. It’s pretty funny. But it’s there, in the kitchen, and this morning I woke up and I saw it, and I was like: ‘Oh man, I really won the Giro!’ But we will find a special place in the house to put it, and my husband will frame the Maglia Rosa. He’s kind of a cycling nerd so he told me not to wash the jersey I wore on the final day. I would like to but I won’t if it pleases him.

It was a hard-fought battle for the overall win until the end. How did you go into that last stage?

E.L.B.: To say that I was confident would be bold. I was really determined to fight for the pink and to get it home. I just wanted to win the Giro, and when I woke up in the morning, I was super motivated to race and super motivated to keep my pink jersey.

What was your plan, knowing that Lotte Kopecky can be very fast in the sprints?

E.L.B.: We wanted to have a hard race from the beginning, and as soon as the gun went, all of my teammates were attacking and trying to get into breakaways. Eventually, Lucinda Brand got into one of them, so we eliminated some of the Team SD Worx-Protime riders by making them work hard. In the end, Kopecky had only (Niamh) Fisher-Black left. My job was to stay with her, not to be dropped, and then to eventually gain some seconds. I really didn’t want to win the Giro by one second. I wanted to extend my lead, to show that I was the strongest. When I saw that she was not super sharp, I was like: ‘Okay, now. Now I’ll launch my sprint, and whatever the outcome is, it’s going to be okay.’ And yeah, you know the ending.

This was your first victory in the Giro, and your 13th participation. Have you looked back at the road that has led you to this victory?

E.L.B.: Years ago, I never expected to win the Giro. I’m overwhelmed. Back in 2011, I was just 19 years old, going into the Giro and trying to hang on as much as possible in the peloton. Then I did a couple of podiums, but I never got to win a big tour. So, I thought, okay, maybe the podium is achievable. But if you ask me about some months ago, when I was in Wisconsin with the team – we discussed the calendar, and we said: ‘Okay, we will go for you in the Giro, and we will try to win it.’ So, from then, we started training with that objective in mind, with that goal. We did a lot of altitude camps, a lot of race preparation. We saw that I was pushing levels that I have never pushed before, so the goal became clearer and more achievable.

After a rough 2023, it looks like you bounced back stronger than ever…

E.L.B.: The performance team made me do a three-week break in the winter, where I was basically doing nothing. And it’s really hard to have me doing nothing, I like to be outside, to exercise, walking, hiking, running. But they asked me to really do nothing, to let my body recover. Maybe that was the key to a nice spring. Then during the Vuelta Femenina, I was tired. I again had a week completely off the bike, I didn’t even touch it. Then I came strong for the Tour de Suisse and for the Giro, and now I’m ready to do the Tour de France Femmes, to help the team, help my teammates to go for stages. And then I will probably have another short break before the UCI Road World Championships. The key is resting.