Longo-Ciprelli and Fitchburg Longsjo celebrate 50 years

It's only fitting that at 50 years of age French cycling legend Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli will line up in the silver anniversary of America’s Fitchburg Longsjo Classic. The four-stage event begins on Friday, July 2 and ends on Sunday, July 5 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

"She has had such an amazing impact on cycling as a whole and on women's cycling so we are so excited that she has chosen to come and race in our event," said race director Ed Collier. He was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from her husband and long-time coach Patrice Ciprelli regarding their arrival to the US. "I was monitoring my email and I got an email from Patrice saying they wanted to come from France to compete. I later realised who he was and who he would likely be bringing."

With more than 1000 career victories to her name, including a recent 56th French national title, Longo-Ciprelli is noted as one of the greatest cyclists of all time for her drum-roll list of achievements that includes five road world championships, four time trial world championships, and four track world championships in addition to four Olympic medals. "She just won her national time trial title so it will be great to see her wearing the French skinsuit in our time trial this year," added Collier.