UCI Women’s WorldTour: Longo Borghini launches a thrilling summer at Women’s Tour

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) won a thrilling Women’s Tour just ahead of Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope). Attention will now turn to the Giro Donne and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

From the spring Classics to the summer stage races, Elisa Longo Borghini has constantly been at the forefront. The Italian star, who conquered Paris-Roubaix at the helm of the Trek-Segafredo in April, returned to competition last week in the Women’s Tour after a six-week break. She immediately powered to glory, taking a stage win and a narrow overall victory after an intense battle with her UCI Women’s WorldTour rivals and especially Australia’s Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), who led the overall standings into the final stage and eventually lost by the smallest margin.

“This is a big relief to win this race because it has been a strange spring for me,” said Elisa Longo Borghini, referring to a bout of sinusitis that hampered her performances before she got back to her best on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. “Also, it’s nice to win an overall classification, this has not happened to me many times in my life. This one is up there as one that ranks high.”

Longo Borghini’s last overall victory came in the 2019 WWT Emakumeen XXXII. Bira, when she edged out another Australian rival - Amanda Spratt - on the final day of action. In recent years, she’s also featured on the podium of the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta (2nd in 2020) and the Giro d’Italia Donne, then known as the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile (2nd in 2017, 3rd in 2020).

She was third in the Individual ranking of the 2021 UCI Women’s WorldTour, after coming 2nd to her Trek-Segafredo companion Lizzie Deignan the previous year. Now she’s back at the forefront on stage races ahead of a highly anticipated summer that will see her line up in the Giro d’Italia Donne (30 June 30 -10 July) and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (24-31 July).

Brown strikes first, Longo Borghini replies on Black Mountain

On the Italian and French roads, Longo Borghini will be met with strong opposition, as was witnessed in the British stage race. The first three days of action led to bunch sprints, dominated by FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope’s Clara Copponi (stage 1) and Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes (stages 2 and 3).

Longo Borghini was at the heart of the action on the following stages with many uphill challenges, but it was Grace Brown who struck first, in Welshpool, with a dominant sprint to win stage 4 in a three-woman group also featuring Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//Sram Racing).

The same three riders were at the front again the next day on the slopes of Black Mountain, with Kristen Faulkner (BikeExchange-Jayco) matching their pace. But this time, nobody could hold off Longo Borghini in her quest for the win. “I tried a couple of times, but with the headwind it was hard to make a selection, so then I trusted my sprint,” she explained. “I went shorter than yesterday - at 150 metres I opened my sprint.”

“I was really doubting”

Longo Borghini and Brown were then tied in the overall standings with just the final stage ahead of them, which was not as demanding as the previous two. As Trek-Segafredo put it, the challenge was at the same time both straightforward and tricky: “How do you win the GC with a sprint ending when you are not a sprinter?”

That’s when Trek-Segafredo’s collective strength and history of success kicked in. “Lizzie [Deignan] sent me a nice message yesterday and said to remember my sprint in 2019,” Longo Borghini shared. That year, Deignan won the Women’s Tour with a 2’’ margin over Niewiadoma. Longo Borghini had been on the front line to accompany her British teammate to victory.

This time, the American team committed to chasing the bonus seconds for Longo Borghini. It didn’t work out in the intermediate sprint, when she came 4th on the line. “All my teammates kept my morale up, and said we will try at the finish and we’ll do the lead-out for you,” Longo Borghini said. “I was really doubting, but when you see such a team that is motivated and they are really believing in you, you just want to give them back everything.”

The Italian all-rounder sprinted to the 3rd place on stage 6 and took the overall win. She moves up to the 7th position in the individual ranking of the 2022 UCI Women’s WorldTour, still led by Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx). The battle is heating for summer.
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