At 16 kilometres long the Giro d’Italia Women stage 1 individual time trial was always going to be an opening salvo, rather than a definitive strike, in the general classification battle but it has left a group of riders with some work to do once the climbing gets underway.
Only a few were within 30 seconds of Italian favourite Elisa Longo Borghini who claimed victory with a time of 20:37, and most key climbing rivals were closer to a minute or two back. That left the Lidl-Trek rider in a commanding position, after she not only outpaced all her likely contenders but even World Championship time trial silver medallist Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez), to claim the first maglia rosa of the 2024 edition with a one-second margin.
In fifth, at 25 seconds back, road World Champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) was among the best of those who may have potentially been seen as an overall threat, though the team is adamant that their focus remains unchanged, with stage victories being the goal.
That leaves Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) as the closest of the declared GC favourites after she finished seventh, with a 29-second deficit to Longo Borghini, who will tomorrow be swapping the green white and red jersey of the Italian champion for pink.
"I lost some time to Longo Borghini and a little bit on Kopecky, but most of the GC contenders are behind us so it is a good start I would say,” said Labous, who came second overall in 2023. “Now we have 7 stages to make the time back: I’m looking forward to them.”
Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) was just a second further back in eighth, giving her a welcome edge on some of the purer climbers. There wasn't, however, a big gap between two of the top contenders for the youth classification, with Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) finishing 48 seconds back from the winning time and Ella Wyllie (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) at 51 seconds. Teammate Mavi Garcia came through the finish line in Brescia 1:20 down.
Lidl-Trek's strength, however, couldn't be denied. The team also had Brodie Chapman on the time trial podium alongside Longo Borghini, plus climbing talent Gaia Realini was a respectable 24th, just 1:08 down. That puts her ahead of a number of others with the potential to excel on ascents like stage 7’s Blockhaus, leaving the team with multiple cards to fend off the challengers.
New Zealand’s Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale) is just a little behind Realini, down 1:14 and just two seconds ahead of compatriot Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime), who the Dutch squad had foreshadowed would take an overall hit because of the time trial starter. That was also the situation for Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ), down 1:22, and Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM) at 1:47.
“It was about as we expected,” said Bradbury. “I probably went out a bit too hard at the start and paid for it later. But we’re not disappointed with today. There are plenty of harder stages to come.”
While most of the key riders that were seen as potential GC contenders finished within two minutes of Longo Borghini, the exception was Lippert, with Movistar saying after the stage that Lippert “covered the final, cobbled descent cautiously to finish in one piece” given she was focussed on goals further into the summer. Mareille Meijering was the team’s top rider finishing 1:17 back.
The overall gaps are likely to largely hold through Monday’s stage 2, with the flat terrain expected to make it one for the sprinters, however, the opportunities for a GC reshuffle are abundant afterwards. Stage 7’s Blockhaus finish, in particular, is set to open up the opportunity for the pure climbers to pull back significant chunks of time. Even without taking into account the room for movement in the tough stages around it, a minute or two and more could quickly disappear on its slopes, which means it is far too early to count anyone in or out of the race for the maglia rosa.
“There was hard riding today,” said SD Worx-Protime sports director and four-time winner of the Giro d’Italia Women Anna van der Breggen. “With that, the cards are partly on the table. But the differences were limited, so anything can still happen."
