"It only got worse" - Elisa Longo Borghini tries to follow Vollering and explodes completely at Europeans

The European Championships had Demi Vollering, Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Anna van der Breggen on the medals today at the women's elite road race, but nowhere to be seen is Elisa Longo Borghini in the results sheet - this is, despite the Italian being the rider who came the closest to matching Vollering during her winning attack on the main climb of the day.

After a World Championships race that proved to be quite frustrating due to unusual tactics and lack of collaboration from some of her rivals to be in the fight for the medals, the Italian didn't want to leave anything to chance this afternoon in France. As the Dutch started pacing up the climb to Saint Romain de Lerps, it was evident that either Vollering or van der Breggen would go on the offensive. It turned out to be Vollering on two occasions.

"After I tried to follow Vollering, I didn't feel my best anymore. But I gave it everything I could. My energy just drained away, that's the story," the veteran said in quick words to CyclingPro.net following the race. Longo Borghini completely blew up trying to follow the attack, not closing the gap, but then also not being able to stay in the wheel of the chasing duo that then went on to take the rest of the medals.

"I didn't think about it, I just wanted to follow. But she dropped me, and that's what happened," said the Italian rider, who then dropped back even further and ultimately finished almost five minutes behind. "It hurt. And when I was completely out of energy, it only got worse."

Longo Borghini was not only dropped from the group that took the medals, but after a long stint of solo riding in the flat part of the circuit, she was caught and overtaken by yet another group on the climb to Val d'Enfer.

Luck was not on her side this afternoon, and she ended up crossing the like in 10th position, 4:42 minutes down on the race winner. "I'm now going to the Italian races and I hope to feel better there and get something nice out of it," she concluded.