Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) sprinted to victory at the uphill finish in Bologna to claim her third career victory at the Giro dell'Emilia Donne.
The Italian beat Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) and Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) to the finish line at San Luca to take her fifth win of 2022.
At the end of a 90km race – in contrast to the men's parcours – which was run almost fully over a pan-flat route, a large group came to the bottom of the 3km finishing climb to San Luca.
"It’s been six years since my last win here and a lot of things have changed since then!" Longo Borghini said later. "Of course, obviously, the jersey I wear, but also my level. I am a stronger rider now. It has also changed that I am getting old but I hope to be like a fine wine and just get better.
"I prefer a more challenging and harder race. We usually race more than 90km and I would like to see maybe two times this final climb. In the end the first part was easy on paper, but we raced it with a fast pace.
"San Luca is a special climb with some steep parts followed by some flatter parts. So a lot depends on how you will face it. The final 100 meters are the secret and it's important to not start too early. This is what I did. I waited to find the right moment at the end to attack and win the race."
Earlier breakaway attempts had come and gone for almost 50km before Alice Palazzi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) managed to get away on her own. Matilde Vitillo (Bepink) attempted to get across to the move but was stuck between Palazzi and the peloton, an attack that would prove as hopeless as the Italian's.
In the end, Palazzi was caught just under 15km from the line, leaving the peloton to compete for victory on the steep slopes of San Luca. The race blew up on the hardest gradients of the hill – up to 20% – as FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope and BikeExchange-Jayco pushed the pace.
Longo Borghini, as she had back in 2015 and 2016, proved the strongest woman on that final climb above Bologna. She burst away from the rest to cross the finish line alone, adding to her Women's Tour, Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and Italian time trial title wins this season.
She finished a clear first place, with Ewers trailing in several seconds later ahead of Bertizzolo. The pairing of Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) and Yara Kastelijn (Plantur-Pura) completed the top five.
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