The Italian champion, a figure in the international peloton for several years, succeeds her Trek-Segafredo teammate Lizzie Deignan on Saturday, victorious in 2021 in the first edition.
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A rider from the Trek-Segafredo team alone in the lead who is racing towards victory. This second women’s edition of Paris-Roubaix recalled for a moment the first and Lizzie Deignan’s victory last year. But this time it was her teammate, Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini, who was the strongest. Starting in the second cobblestone sector of Templeuve, the 30-year-old Piedmontese resisted the return of the overpowering SD Worx team led by a Lotte Kopecky who was still in great shape. In the final sprint on the Vélodrome de Roubaix, it was Lotte Kopecky who overtook Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) to take second place on the Hell of the North podium.
Note the new fine performance of the FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope training, through Marta Cavalli. The Italian, winner of the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday, finished fifth despite a puncture in the middle of the race. The first Frenchwoman in the race is the track runner Victoire Berteau (Cofidis), who finishes in 17th place. Audrey Cordon-Ragot, eighth on the first edition, is 27th.
Lotte Kopecky unleashed a phenomenal attack 54 km from the finish in the Auchy-lez-Orchies sector, in Bersée. The Belgian, boosted, could only be followed by a comfortable Marta Bastianelli and by Lucinda Brand a few moments later. But after being controlled by the peloton, this trio of breakaways was caught up in the Templeuve sector and came under immediate attack from the Italian champion, Elisa Longo Borghini. At the same time, the world champion Elisa Balsamo learned of her disqualification at the 37th km for a stuck bottle.
But 26 km from the finish, in the Cysoing sector, in Bourghelles, the riders of the powerful SD Worx formation tried to regain control of the race under the leadership of Lotte Kopecky then Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak. Returning to within ten seconds of the leader, this effort was annihilated by the good work of the two riders of the Trek-Segafredo formation Ellen Van Dijk and Lucinda Brand, who cut the relays. After a still tough final sprint in the Velodrome, it was sprinters Lotte Kopecky and Lucinda Brand who settled the less powerful Swiss Elisa Chabbey and Marta Cavalli. Elisa Longo Borghini had crossed the line 23 seconds earlier to claim one of her greatest victories.