ROUBAIX: Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini won the second edition of the women’s Paris-Roubaix after a solo raid of more than 30 kilometres on Saturday.
Longo Borghini attacked in a cobbled sector after catching a breakaway group of three and never looked back as her Trek Segafredo team-mate and compatriot Elisa Balsamo was disqualified for taking an illegal tow from her team car while chasing back after a puncture.
Looking barely troubled by the cobblestones, Longo Borghini, twice a bronze medallist at the Olympics and also in the world championships road race, had victory virtually in the bag after the Carrefour de l’Arbre — the last demanding cobbled section.
The 30-year-old crossed the line on the Roubaix velodrome 23 seconds ahead of Belgian Lotte Kopecky, who had blown the race open with a brutal acceleration with 52km to go.
Team SD Worx rider Kopecky, winner of the Tour of Flanders two weeks ago, headed a six-woman sprint behind Longo Borghini to finish second ahead of the Italian’s Trek Segafredo team-mate Lucinda Brand of the Netherlands.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Longo Borghini, who let out a long scream then sat crying on the floor with her face buried in her hands at the finish line. “I had been feeling unwell for a month and could not perform the way I wanted. But the team trusted me and told me I could do it.
“I haven’t been well or performing as I know I can. I didn’t think I was ready, I didn’t think that I wanted to do it. They kept saying, ‘we know you are ready and capable of doing this.’ I have to say that they were right.”
Marianne Vos, cycling’s most decorated woman, did not start the 124.7-km classic after testing positive for Covid-19.
Last year’s winner Lizzie Deignan, also a Trek-Segafredo rider, was not competing as she is expecting her second child.
In stark contrast to the 2021 mud-fest the second edition of the women’s race was contested in bone-dry conditions and clouds of dust caused by many riders using the dirt paths that run alongside the cobbled sections in the bleak, flat fields that skirt the Belgian border.
Longo Borghini’s winnings are also in stark contrast to those of Deignan after this year’s massive increase in prize money to 20,000 euros (21,600 dollars) instead of the 1,535 euros on offer for the win just a year ago.
The men’s race will be held on Sunday.
