Elisa Longo Borghini won the second edition of the women’s Paris-Roubaix after blowing away the field with a solo raid more than 30 kilometres from the famous velodrome, to take victory in dominant fashion.
After catching a three-rider breakaway group, Longo Borghini attacked over the top on the cobbles and never looked back.
For the Italian, the victory had added meaning after what she admitted had been a difficult period personally. “It’s been a very tough spring for me. I had anxieties for a month, and I couldn’t really perform the way I wanted. I knew I was worth more than what I was performing and it was a little bit frustrating. It was a little bit of a hard time,” Longo Borghini told Velo News post-race.
“[Trek-Segafredo] brought me to this race and I was like: ‘I don’t think I’m ready. I really don’t want to do it’, and they kept saying ‘you’re more than ready and we know you are capable of doing this’. So, I have to say that they were right.”
The race was missing its inaugural winner and Longo Borghini’s Trek teammate Lizzie Deignan, who is expecting her second child. Marianne Vos, cycling’s most decorated woman, was also absent from the start line after testing positive for Covid-19.
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.
Belgian Lotte Kopecky had blown the race open with a brutal burst away from the peloton with 52km to go, but the Italian counterattacked and got away on the Templeuve sector. After that Longo Borghini proved uncatchable, extending her advantage over the chasing group and still holding a 41-second lead with 12 kilometres to go.
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The chasing pack came closer in the final stages, but Longo Borghini was not going to be denied. She held off her rivals to celebrate in the Roubaix velodrome, crossing the line 23 seconds in front of Team SD Worx rider Kopecky, who beat Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) in the sprint for second place.
While Trek-Segafredo dominated the podium, they did finish the race a rider down after Elisa Balsamo was disqualified for taking an illegal tow from her team car while chasing back after a puncture.
