Elisa Longo Borghini beats Demi Vollering to win Brabantse Pijl: "Today I was stronger"

Lidl-Trek are having a great season in their women's team and Elisa Longo Borghini has just taken another very strong triumph. At Brabantse Pijl, the Italian rider attacked together with Demi Vollering but was the superior rider in the final kilometers.

“It was a very strong team performance, as we showed in Flanders. Today we really wanted to have a kind of open race, but we planned an attack at kilometer 85, and then we did it again on the Moskesstraat," Longo Borghini said in a post-race interview. "This victory is for my husband, Jacopo (Mosca, of Lidl-Trek's men team, ed.) who is on Teide training, because of a joke with the Moskesstraat and his surname. I hope to see him very soon!" The duo attacked together and then Longo Borghini dropped her rival with only 7 kilometers to go, in the final climb before the finish in Overijse.

"We planned our first attack with the Team and we had a really good leadout. It’s a big credit today to my teammates, everyone was really committed to do well. We were relaxed but really determined to win this race. We did our best and succeeded," she explains. "Demi looked really strong and she did a good race, she’s a rider that I have a lot of respect for. Today I was stronger, maybe tomorrow, she is stronger."

After a win at the Tour of Flanders and with the Ardennes classics right ahead, this is a great sign for the team that looks to contest with SD Worx - Protime. "I set a big goal during the winter which I have been training towards, and that is Liège. Of course, every race is different and special. I will try to do my best there. In the Ardennes I will try to be there for the Team; in Flèche for Gaia [Realini] and in Amstel for Shirin [van Anrooij].”