Giro d'Italia Women 2024: Longo Borghini wins individual time trial at the start

A time trial stage at the start of the women's Giro d'Italia is a tradition, but this time the course was an unusually long 15.7 kilometres through the centre of Brescia. The course offered hardly any hurdles, with the only significant elevation of the day coming in the last third of the route to the castle in Brescia, from where the route then descended to the finish in the Piazza della Loggia.

Carmela Cipriani (Bepink - Bongioanni) was the first of 153 riders to set off at 11:35. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) then set the fastest time early on, which would stand until the end. Due to the later onset of rain, many of the favourites started the race early. Longo Borghini completed the course in 20:37 minutes and with an hourly average of 45.691 km/h. The big favourite for overall victory thus set the first exclamation mark and took the overall lead as well as the first pink jersey of this tour.

Franziska Koch best German rider in the time trial

Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) was narrowly beaten into second place on the day, the Australian finishing one second slower than the fastest time. Longo Borghini's team-mate Brodie Chapman came third, 13 seconds behind. Switzerland's Elena Hartmann (Roland) finished the time trial in sixth place (+0:28). The best German starter was Franziska Koch (dsm-firmenich - PostNL) in twelfth place (+0:47 seconds).

Of her rivals for overall victory, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in fifth place kept the gap within limits at 25 seconds, while Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich - PostNL) also remained within striking distance at 29 seconds. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) finished 13th, 48 seconds behind, and took the lead in the junior classification.

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez), on the other hand, already lost 1:22 minutes to the day's winner Longo Borghini. Liane Lippert (Movistar) was even 2:33 minutes behind.

>> Review of the 2024 Giro d'Italia for men

>> This is the route of the 2024 Women's Tour de France

>> This is the route of the 2024 Women's Vuelta

Giro d'Italia Women 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 1

1. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), 20:37 minutes
2. Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez), +0:01
3. Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek), +0:13
4. Lieke Nooijen (Team Visma |Lease a Bike), +0:23
5. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), +0:25
6. Elena Hartmann (Roland), +0:28
7. Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich - PostNL), +0:29
8. Ruth Edwards (Human Power Health), +0:30
9. Cedrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit - WNT Pro Cycling), +0:38
10. Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez), +0:38