Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Elisa Longo Borghini was the black and orange team’s best finisher in the opening prologue of the Giro Rosa, with a solid twelfth place. The newly-crowned Italian Time Trial Champion completed the short, flat, two kilometre course, in Gaiarine, in the province of Treviso, in a time of two minutes, 29 seconds, just six seconds behind the winning time of Leah Kirchmann (Liv-Plantur). Rabo-Liv pair Thalia de Jong and Anna van der Breggen completed the podium.

“The prologue was alright,” Longo Borghini said. “I started really late, which is something I don’t really like. I prefer to start early, and to do everything.

“It was fast; not technical at all,” she added. “I just went full, and it’s minus nine days to the end of the Giro!”

Putting aside her own general classification ambitions to support two-time Giro winning teammate Mara Abbott, Longo Borghini will instead be targeting stage wins in her home tour. On a course that was completely unsuited to her climbing talents, Abbott managed to limit her losses to her big rivals with a time of two minutes, 48 seconds.

Also inside the top was Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Chloe Hosking, who finished in 18th with a time of two minutes, 30 seconds. The Australian sprinter is just seven seconds behind Kirchmann, and so within a stage victory time bonus of the Canadian’s Pink Jersey.

Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s French Time Trial Champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot also impressed in the short, sharp event, with a time of two minutes, 35 seconds; while Asian Time Trial Champion Mayuko Hagiwara and former two time road World Champion Giorgia Bronzini both finished in two minutes, 38 seconds.

Tomorrow’s first road stage of the Giro Rosa, between Gaiarine and San Fior features just one classified climb in its 104km course, and so should be one for the sprinters.