Longo Borghini solos to Italian road race title

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Elisa Longo Borghini, racing in Italy under the 'Fiamme Oro', which is the state police sporting club, claimed her first national title for road racing after she soloed in the final climb within 20 kilometers to go.

Her usual teammate Giorgia Bronzini, still wearing their professional jersey from Wiggle High5, rounded out their domination as she won the sprint for second place ahead of Soraya Paladin of Alè Cipollini.

"Finally I made it in the road race as well," Longo Borghini declared. "In the past few years I either crashed or came second. Today, on the other, I started with the firm intention of winning and I took a big stone out of my shoe. Winning in Piedmont, my region, is special but winning an Italian championship in my region is fantastic. I had prepared for the road race more than for the time trial. I also won the time trial because I’m on good form even though the course didn’t suit me well."

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Covered by her team-mates from the starting point of Leinì to the finishing city of Ivrea, Longo Borghini waited for the final circuit of 21.3km to make her move.

"My initial plan consisted of attacking two kilometers before the end," she explained. "But as we suspected, we caught the breakaway at the bottom of the climb. [Team-mate] Elisa Balsamo rode really strong at the front of our group, followed by Giorgia Bronzini. At the moment I looked behind, there was no one in out slipstream so I kept going. My idea was to crest with thirty seconds advantage but in reality I had 1.12 lead so I was able to handle my advance. But the truth is that I rode flat out, always worrying that a group would catch me, who knows, if they’d be racing at 60km/h in the last three kilometers…"

Longo Borghini savoured the last kilometer of racing with the assurance of wearing the red-white-green jersey in the coming Giro Rosa.

"Since I got an Olympic [bronze] medal [in Rio last year], I’m more serene,", she added. "Giorgia [Bronzini] is also always there to tell me to stay calm or to wake me up if she feels I needed to race more aggressively. This Italian title isn’t the ultimate achievement though. I take it as a starting point with the world championship in Bergen as my next big objective in September. I went with the national team to recce the course in May. It suits me although I’d have like a more difficult finale. I’ll go to Norway with big ambitions."

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