SANREMO – «I saw Stuyven's final about 100 times – says Elisa Longo Borghini – and I knew they could look at each other. But unfortunately there were too many SD Worx and above all there was the world champion who usually never makes a mistakeAnd Lorena Wiebes, who is clearly the best sprinter in the world right now. I had hoped for it like at the World Championships, but it will come back to me…».
The Cipressa didn't do any harm. On the Poggio, there were few, but still more than was needed. So Elisa attacked the only place left to invent something, as soon as the Sanremo Women's cycling landed on the Aurelia. A time trialist's move, which truly recalled the winning attack of Stuyven in 2021. That year, the day after Longo won the Binda Trophy, completing an exceptional weekend for the then Trek-Segafredo.
A sharp blow on the Aurelia
They filmed her 250 meters from the finish line with scientific precision. Lotte Kopeky she waited to see if someone else was moving, then she lowered her head and the relationship and started huntingThe world champion never makes mistakes, says Elisa, and the memory of the world championship comes to mind and still makes her mouth wrinkle. Now it stops on the right side of the roadHe answered Andrea Berton's questions in English for Eurosport, then took off his glasses and looked straight at them.
«We couldn't leave on Poggio, it was too fast and there was a lot of wind in our favor. I tried to stay calm, because an attack on the Poggio wouldn't have made a difference to me.I remained calm until the last two and a half kilometers, I played my cards and today they weren't enoughI have good legs, but it's cycling: what can I tell you?!
Desire to run and desire to win
This morning at the freezing start of the Sanremo Donne from Genoa, Longo Borghini was much more serious and focused than she had appeared in Siena two weeks ago, fully covered, with gloves and shoe covers to keep out the cold and the rain that had started to fall again. The malaise at the Strade Bianche, the almost furious test of the Binda Trophy, everything seemed to be behind us and now his tricolor jersey was calling for a victory on Italian soil.
«I was focused – she admits – I wanted to run. I wanted to do well and I wanted to win. For me it was something incredible, because I carried my nieces, Anna and Marta, in my heartFor me it was more than a cycling race, it was a story. And I hope after my career I can come to the Poggio to watch the girls pass by, my nieces, maybe after a 200 kilometre race».
Short distance: a theme
The theme of the few kilometers returns and splits the group. For a Balsamo who said she was against it to the general increase in distances, Elisa Longo Borghini does not miss the opportunity to reiterate the need for longer and consequently more selective races. The Sanremo Donne, twenty years after the last edition, was run at an average of 41,783, a far different level compared to the 38,480 of Trixi Worrack in the Primavera Rosa of 2005 over the distance of 118 kilometers. The level has risen, perhaps the 156 kilometers of the race are really not enough to give everyone the chance to get a result.
"I only turned around twice," she says before going to her classmates and hugging them, "and that's understandable. Did I think I could do it? Of course, You never attack if you don't believe you can do it and today I believed in it until the line».
Appointment in the North
He turns around. There's Erica Magnaldi who has pulled onto the Cipressa, then one by one the other girls arrive. UAE ADQ Team. They hug her, whisper words that remain between them, while all around the group disperses and the course staff begin to tidy up in anticipation of the men's race.
"Of course Kopecky shot like that," she says, greeting us. "Lorena Wiebes was behind him." The girls from SD Worx, we tell her, laughing, don't fight like they used to. She looks up and smiles.It's the story of my life, but it all makes senseAnd this one will come back too. Next week there's Ghent and then I'll head straight to Flanders. See you in Belgium? "Of course, see you in Belgium…
