GENOA – Elisa Longo Borghini's withdrawal from the Sanremo Women's cycling with less than twenty-four hours to go has deprived us of a key performer, who would have chosen to race hard and try to break the bank right from Cipressa. Instead a fever attack forced the Italian champion of UAE ADQ Team to stop for a few days, for what appears to be a brief, if annoying, stop.
Near the Old Port, in Genoa, we had the opportunity to talk with Paul Slongo, trainer of Elisa Longo Borghini, who told us how his plans will change in view of the Northern Classics.
«Longo Borghini will resume racing at the Dwars Door Vlaanderen on April 1st – Slongo told us – and then have Flanders and Roubaix as his main objectives in the cobbled races. The big change from last season concerns the Ardennes campaign, in fact the choice to anticipate the departure of the Giro d'Italia Women's cycling (moved from the first week of July to the end of May, ed.) forces us to skip the late April services. So no Amstel, Freccia, and Liège. During that period we will have a high altitude training camp to best prepare for the attack on the third consecutive pink jersey.».
A shift in dates forced us to choose our goals…
With the company Giro Women's cycling which starts on May 30th, it was becoming difficult, if not impossible, to be able to prepare for it while also running in the Ardennes. The biggest risk was to arrive tired at the Corsa Rosa, after all the Giro is the most important event of this first part of the season, while afterwards we will have to prepare for the Tour de France Femmes.
How will you work towards the Giro?
We will continue with the usual program of training and races until Roubaix, at the end of the Classics Longo Borghini will have a week at a slow paceIt will be important to recover as best as possible, even mentally, after this first part of the season. The idea is to also do some reconnaissance of the Giro route, especially in Veneto.
What stages will we look at?
The time trial of He laughs will be crucial for the race to pink sweater, so seeing the road and understanding how to manage the effort will be fundamental. It would also be a good idea to study the next stage, which starts from Longarone, carefully.While she will go and view Colle delle Finestre at a later time.
To be ready for the Giro, what will be the approach?
Once the reconnaissance period is over, which will be the recovery week after Roubaix, we will leave for the high-altitude training camp. Longo Borghini and the other teammates who will race at the Giro will go on Teide from May 1st to 22ndOnce we get off, there will be an adjustment period and then we leave for Cesenatico.
Will the Tour be your second seasonal goal?
There will be a group that will only do the Tour de France Femmes, while Longo Borghini he will get there after racing in the Giro. The team's star athlete is expected to be Dominika Wlodarczyk, who finished fourth overall in 2025.Longo Borghini will have a leading, but shared, role.
Is the approach path still the same?
We opted to do a high altitude retreat at Passo San Pellegrino, where all the girls competing in the Tour will be. Elisa will have the freedom to arrive later to save herself another three weeks of altitude. There is enough space between the two stage races to be ready for both.The most important rest period will actually be the one after the Classics.
How much does it cost an athlete like Longo Borghini to give up the Ardennes?
It's particularly disappointing for Liège, which is a race very close to his characteristics. But we need to create a program and make some choices. In the last two seasons we had skipped Roubaix, while this year the choice is to return to the French cobblesThe last time she was there she even won, it was 2022.
With the return to Roubaix, has anything changed in the approach?
No, nowadays you always arrive at the main events in good condition. Then Longo Borghini is an athlete who has already run several times on those roads, he has no problems on a technical levelWe'll go up on April 9th, three days before the race, to do some testing of the equipment and review the details of the route.
