Three days without a bike after the Vuelta, Elisa Longo Borghini felt the urge to start again. His spring was a hymn to high performance. Third place at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the second to the Strade Bianche and then the victories of the Gold Trophy in Euro, of the Flanders, of the Brabant Arrow. This was followed by third place at the Flèche Wallonne and the second of LiègeOf the many smiles of the past few weeks, that was the most forced. Real and confident in the moment, with lots of compliments to Grace Brown. But as heavy as an indigestible lunch in the days that followed.
«Every now and then it comes up – Elisa admits with a resigned smile – but The more I think about it, the more I believe that Grace Brown had to win that day. If you do that roundabout ten times like she did, you'll fall eleven. But she stayed standing, and that was a sign that she was going to win. And then she's always a tough call in the sprints, because she's so strong..."
I'd have no problem accepting it if you were the Elisa of two years ago, losing sprints one after the other. But since you learned to win them too...
And don't tell me! I believed it until 25 meters from the finish line, then she passed me at double speed and when I saw her I said: "No! What does she want? No!" You know when you feel bad because you drop the ice cream or the toast on the jam side? It was the same…
Let's go back to the Vuelta: was it a goal or a way to end the spring?
It was planned from the beginning. It's just that I got there with my condition probably already at the limit.I finished a little tired. I was really going strong in the Ardennes, but the weather didn't help. I'm not one to suffer from the cold too much, but I felt it, and those icy ones stick to you. With Long We had taken into account that I would arrive at the Vuelta a little tired, almost at the limit And in the end, it wasn't that bad. I was just sorry that Gaia had to retire; that crash wasn't what we needed (Gaia Realini retired after a crash, after having been the leader, ed.). We both started out leading, but she had taken a different approach.
Did you immediately understand that it wasn't a Vuelta that would bother Vollering?
Vollering was within my reach, in my opinion, it's not unbeatable or doesn't have the dominance of last year. Rather, I was in a declining phase, I was quite tired and so I wasn't able to keep up with her for long. But in the end on the first uphill finish I missed the last 700 meters and she was beaten by Muzic in the penultimate stage, so she wasn't unreachable.
The fact remains that the spring goals were the Classics and now comes the Giro, right?
Yes, now as a first objective there is the Tour of Italy. To the Tour de France I'll really be supporting the group more and riding the stages, with a different mental approach. At the Giro, however, it would be nice to be able to really compete in the general classification.
How can the Giro d'Italia's overall standings, which end on July 14th, be reconciled with the prospect, if called up, of going to the Olympics, which take place on August 4th?
Let's say I'm having a break now after the Vuelta. Then I'll have two weeks in which I will start training again here at home, before the training camp in San Pellegrino from May 27th to June 11thThen I will do the Swiss and Italian championships, so I will have time to be fresh both physically and mentally, before tackle a block of important races such as the Giro d'Italia, Olympics and TourI have about forty days ahead of me to catch my breath, recover my mental and physical energy, and then dive back into the season.
How does Elisa Longo Borghini's rest at home work?
I didn't ride my bike for three days. Until it rained, I said, "Come on, rest because it's raining." Then the weather improved and I was already a bit annoyed at staying still. After the Vuelta, I felt the need to take a break. I had a sore throat, I felt a bit tired, all the things that happen when you're exhausted. When Vollering dropped me in the last 700 meters of the first stage, which he won [at Alto del Fuerte Rapitan, stage five, ed.], I realized I was on the decline.
How did you know that?
Already at the beginning of the climb I had started to feel that my legs were hurting too much. And then when I exploded and she won, I realized that under normal circumstances I would have been able to maintain those wattages without any problems and I realized that I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. These are symptoms that I know well by now, typical of when I'm at my wits' end.I can't sleep well anymore and I'm starting to realize that my body is saying enough is enough.
And if these are the feelings of exhaustion, how do you feel when you start again after three days?
I'm starting to feel like I'm not on my bike. I'm so used to riding every day that even after three days, I still think the handlebars feel strange and the saddle height is different. A flooded engine, like when you try to start your Vespa after it's been in the garage all winter. Like after the holidays, basically. But if you take two days off after the January retreat, everything is different. The retreat is stressful, even mentally, because there are a thousand commitments. And if you take two quiet days where you eat and rest well, when you get back on the bike it feels like you haven't even stopped.
What day of the year did you feel strongest?
The Flanders one, I could have done another 20 kilometers. I was feeling really good. I usually come down from the hill and by the third run I'm going strong. I'd done the Ghent and Dwars door Vlaanderen races as warm-up races, and at Flanders I felt really good and in good spirits. It wasn't the seasonal goal, and no one had talked about it, not even in the team. We'd just told ourselves to get to the Koppenberg, because there you always know everything. And when we got there it was as if, without having said it, we all wanted to do something big.. And we did.
Yet it wasn't a goal of yours, like the first races in which you did well: could it be that you've now reached a base of strength that allows you to be competitive even when you're not at your best?
Maybe in a certain sense it's true, but I had to recover this basic level this winter. I think that Having worked so much at low intensity gave me the foundation of fitnessSo from this base I can have some good peaks, but not incredible downturns. Then maybe I'll prove myself wrong in a few months or a few weeks, but I saw that my average condition is fine, it's enough to be successful. Maybe not in every race, but it's close. At the end of the Vuelta, I was on the decline, but I held my own and ended up on the podium.
