Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) has been sporting the Giro d’Italia Women’s maglia rosa since her stage 1 victory within the time trial – however going into the ultimate stage 8 from Pescara to L’Aquila, the Italian champion’s benefit over her rival Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) has been decreased to just one second.
The query is, will Longo Borghini have the ability to cease Kopecky from gaining again that one second, and win the general title?
Kopecky stayed on Longo Borghini’s wheel on the Blockhaus climb, biding her time and making her transfer within the final 300 metres. Longo Borghini may stick with the world champion’s wheel, although, and solely gave up two seconds because of the bonus seconds on supply on the end – six for second-placed Kopecky and 4 for Longo Borghini in third.
“I by no means underestimate Lotte. I feel at present she had an excellent efficiency. It looks as if it all the time comes all the way down to sprints along with her and me, and more often than not, she wins it,” Longo Borghini stated after the stage, having obtained a brand new maglia rosa on the rostrum.
“What can I say? [I’m] nonetheless in pink, however she is actually shut now, so let’s see tomorrow,”
From the beginning of the race seven days in the past, the Italian champion had made clear that she was taking the maglia rosa day-to-day, not considering too far forward and cherishing every day within the pink chief’s jersey at her house nation’s nationwide stage race.
Now just one second forward, Longo Borghini sounded virtually resigned to a destiny the place Kopecky would outsprint her once more on the ultimate day to take the GC victory.
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Fortunately for Longo Borghini, there are not any bonus seconds awarded on the intermediate sprints on the Giro d’Italia Women, which means that the GC will come all the way down to the L’Aquila end.
The stage winner will get a ten-second bonification, the runner-up will get six bonus seconds, and the third-placed rider receives 4 bonus seconds. This implies that if Kopecky finishes within the prime 3 of the stage and forward of Longo Borghini, she is going to win the race total title.
Stage 8 is something however straightforward with a really lengthy however comparatively shallow third-category climb within the first 50km adopted by the 13.7km climb to Castel del Monte, averaging 4.7%. Nowhere close to as steep because the Passo Lanciano or Blockhaus, each Longo Borghini and Kopecky ought to nonetheless have a few teammates left for the second half of the stage which incorporates three brief unclassified climbs.
Just earlier than L’Aquila, riders will face the climb to Acquasanta, slightly below 2km at a mean of 5.5%, and a most gradient of 9%. After a quick descent to the 2km mark, the highway rises gently earlier than kicking up for actual on the final 1200 metres that climb at 7.6%, maxing out at 11%.
On the flat, Kopecky would win a dash towards Longo Borghini virtually each time. However, the ending climb is arguably too steep for Kopecky to make use of her punch to drop Longo Borghini, who has a incredible skill to struggle again and grasp on.
Furthermore, Lidl-Trek already utilised the breakaway effectively on stage 6 to take the bonus seconds away and could be anticipated to do the identical on stage 8. This would put the onus on SD Worx-Protime to deliver again the break on a tough stage, tiring the group out and leaving Kopecky with less-than-ideal help within the closing.
And Longo Borghini would possibly even resolve that assault is the most effective defence and pre-empt Kopecky’s transfer with an assault of her personal on the Acquasanta climb, placing Kopecky on the again foot.
“I don’t worry her; I’m extra, like, involved, however it’s not going to mess up my sleep,” Longo Borghini promised that, if nothing else, she would face her closing Giro problem well-rested.