Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) powered away on the steep ramps of the San Luca climb to win her fourth Giro dell’Emilia Internazionale Donne by 9 seconds. Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) finished second, outsprinting Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL), who took third.
Wet weather similar to the World Championships greeted the riders at the start and riders appeared to prefer the company of the peloton, rather than attacking. It wasn’t until halfway through the race that two riders from Top Girls/Fassa Bortolo decided to try their luck, Marta Pavesi and Chiara Reghini, who managed to build a lead of nearly three minutes. However, by the time they reached the foot of the San Luca for the first ascent, their lead was under a minute and they were quickly caught on the climb.
In the final 10 km, Lidl-Trek went to the front and pushed the pace and the peloton began to quickly splinter. On the first ascent of the San Luca climb, Lidl-Trek teammates Gaia Realini Elisa and Longo Borghini found themselves leading Juliette Labous and Nienke Vink of dsm-firmenich PostNL.
Once over the top, Longo Borghini found herself alone on the descent that looped back to the final ascension of San Luca and decided to go for it. As she explained it afterwards, “Today’s was different, because usually everything is resolved in the final climb to San Luca, whereas today I managed to go alone on the descent and then, seeing that the gap was big enough, I took the chance to ride straight to the finish.”
Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) was pleased with her third place and her teammates hard work. “The girls did perfect positioning for Nienke and me before the first climb to San Luca,” Labous explained. “Longo Borghini opened a gap on the descent, and no one chased at the bottom, so she had quite a lead by the last climb.”
Longo Borghini opened a gap and soloed to victory on San Luca (photo: Lidl-Trek)
Longo Borghini will be moving to UAE/Team ADQ next year, and as a thank you and a goodbye to her team wants to close out the season with some victories.
“Today, I particularly wanted to win, “she said. “These [today and then Simac Tour] are my last days with Lidl-Trek. Today, was the last race with Ina in the team car. I want to close this chapter in the best possible way. And then, there was also Luca [Guercilena, D.S.] with us at the race. He clearly asked us to win, I couldn’t, and didn’t want, to disappoint him.”
RESULTS
Giro dell’Emilia Internazionale Donne, 1.Pro (113.8km)