Elisa Longo Borghini: "I was just focused on taking the bonus second" leading to victory at Women's tour

Elisa Longo Borghini crossed the finish line in third place on the sixth stage of the Women's Tour, grabbing a four-second time bonus to leapfrog Grace Brown and win the Women's Tour by one second. A more dramatic conclusion to an already remarkable week of racing in the UK could not be written.

“We decided to go for the intermediate sprint, and I was 4th, so I was like okay, that’s the 2nd place and that’s it, But all my teammates kept my morale up and told me we will try at the finish; we’ll do the lead-out for you. I was really doubting, but when you see such a motivated team and they are really believing in you, you just want to give them back everything. In the end, they all did a perfect job, and Audrey led me into the final 500m. I know that in corners, I am good, and I let some riders in front of me and took their draft, and I made my own sprint,” she explained . Her sprint was stunning, and it came on the heels of an outstanding team effort.

“I didn’t know where Grace was; I was just focused on taking the bonus seconds. This is a big relief to win this race because it has been a strange spring for me. Now I am back to my normal level. Also, it’s nice to win an overall classification; this has not happened to me many times in my life. It’s only the 3rd tour I have won; this one is up there as one that ranks high,” the Italian concluded. After taking the win at Paris-Roubaix Femmes, this comes as another strong result and great addition of success to her season.