Elisa Longo Borghini and UAE Team L'IMAD celebrated a successful Tour de France Femmes on Sunday evening as the Italian finished third overall and the team placed two other riders in the top 10, as well as taking home the teams prize.
But, amid the revelry on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, Longo Borghini had an important message to share in the post-race press conference.
Her consistent performances throughout the race saw her take third behind Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, and nine days of racing between Lausanne and Nice proved all is well at the very top level of the sport. However, Longo Borghini had a warning about cycling's lower levels – the ranks of the amateur, under-23, and junior racers.
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"What I would like to see is the base to be a little bit more wide, let's say, and to not see small teams disappearing, because otherwise we will not have a change of generation. Young girls will not have a chance to have experience," Longo Borghini said.
With her Tour podium, she only added to one of the most impressive palmarès in cycling. It stands alongside a pair of Giro d'Italia titles and Olympic bronze medals plus wins at Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders (twice), and Strade Bianche.
None of that would've been possible without the support she received as a junior racer, however.
"I did the third year of juniors because I was not good. I never did a single European Championship or World Championship as a junior, and now I'm standing on the podium of the Tour de France," she said.
"Who knows – maybe out there, there is a strong girl that didn't get the chance to go into a development team at the moment and is still riding maybe in Continental or not in a UCI team. I would like to see more races for young girls, under-23, in the future."
In Longo Borghini's native Italy and another traditional cycling powerhouse, Spain, the number of UCI teams has fallen dramatically in the past three years. Italy has gone from seven to five, while Spain has gone from 10 to just two.
Several teams, including Eneicat-Be Call, Massi-Baix Ter, Farto-Kiroot, Cantabria-Rio Meira, AR Monex, and BTC City Ljubljana, have dropped from the Continental rank to club level in recent years, limiting riders' access to international and higher-level races.
In Spain in particular, the problem comes down to small teams being unable to match the UCI's minimum salary rules.
"The problem is that they put a minimum salary for Conti teams that is too high for teams. At the same time, the salary for Conti teams is a national rule, so every country is going its own way, resulting in clear discrimination," Eneicat-Be Call rider Alessia Missiaggia told Cyclingnews earlier this year.
It remains to be seen whether the lower levels of women's cycling can be strengthened as Longo Borghini hopes, but she did acknowledge that, at the top level, things are better than ever.
Greater competition than ever before has led to climbing and power records being broken, as well as increased attention and viewing figures.
"The level of women's cycling in general is very high at the moment. At the Tour de France, it's always funny because all these numbers come out about watts per kilo and time of climbing and stuff like that. But in every Grand Tour, if we can call them like this for us, we are breaking records," she said.
"Also at the Giro last year, 5.3 watts per kilo was done, but nobody spoke about it because it was not the Tour. I'm very happy that here, at least, we are speaking about the fact that women are fast on the bike. We are reaching a great level in general in cycling."
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