After winning the Trek-Segafredo team time trial, Elisa Longo Borghini started the second stage of the Giro Rosa in the pink leader's jersey. However, her hopes of overall success were soon dashed, as she finished 4:22 behind stage winner and new overall leader Annemiek van Grooten (Mitchelton-Scott). "Honestly, it was the worst day of my life," van Houten said. I started with a flat tire, swapped bikes with Audrey (Cordon-Lago), and later got back on my own bike. Finally back on his own bike, Longo Borghini tried to keep up with Van Breuten's acceleration at first on the decisive gravel climb. Soon the world champion was out of sight, but Longo Borghini stayed with the lead group for a while.

"Halfway through the last gravel sector, my body stopped moving. I was empty. I managed to finish 14th, but I didn't feel good at all. That's cycling, it has its ups and downs. I'm a little sad that I let the team down. But there is still a week to go and we have a lot of chances.

The time loss in the very challenging first stage dropped 28-year-old Longo Borghini from first to 10th overall, 4:27 behind Van Hulten. Longo Borghini also fell behind Soraya Paladin (CCC-Liv) and Erika Magnardi (Serratigit-WNT), but the TTT kept the two main challengers to the blue jersey, awarded to the best Italian, 12 and 16 seconds behind, respectively.

Longo Borghini has won the blue jersey five times in the last six Giro Rosa. Now that the pink jersey is almost certainly out of reach, she is expected to focus all her efforts on winning the blue jersey. With the time difference, Longo Borghini will have more freedom to attack than she did with the pink jersey, and she may succeed in chasing down the Giro Rosa stage win that she has missed so far.

For full reports, results, news, features, and galleries from the 2020 Giro Rosa, visit Cycling News' dedicated women's page.