"It was a bit of a clown show" - Elisa Longo Borghini puzzled by Kigali tactics as she misses Top10

The World Championships, with no team radios and a lot of individual ambitions within national teams, are often ground for unusual tactic races. Today's event in Kigali with the women's elite road race showed that exactly and one of the main favourites in Elisa Longo Borghini was quite vocal on what she believed to be a very unusual race with tactical errors from her and her rivals who saw all the medals escape to an unlikely group of riders.

"It was a very strange race. First of all, I thank my teammates who raced well. The ones who didn't race well were me and the others who were supposed to race the race. We lost foolishly. I think the winners were very brave and made smart moves, unlike us," she said in a post-race interview.

In the closing kilometers of the race there was a sequence of events that saw Longo Borghini and her rivals miss out on the win. After letting the gap to a front group grow exponentially, France decided to take over the reigns in the main favourites group where the Italian leader was present. She tried covering Marlen Reusser's attack crossing the finish line into the final lap, but couldn't close it and Barbara Malcotti followed the Swiss rider instead of helping the team leader in a key moment of the race.

The group stopped again and after the penultimate climb of the day Longo Borghini was riding together with Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, with the trio linking up with Malcotti finally. There was a chance to finally close the gap to the front group, but then the group completely let the wheel of the Italian rider go, causing it to stop once again as everyone looked to save themselves into the final climb.

At the finish line, both Longo Borghini and Ferrand-Prévot struggled and crossed the finish in 15th and 16th place respectively, a meaningless result for two riders of such outstanding quality, who did show themselves to be very strong during the climbs. But the damage was done, and Longo Borghini was very much unhappy, even if she admitted that in the heat of the moment she did not want to say harsh words.

"Ifs and buts don't get you anywhere. There will be time to reflect; I'd say a lot of bullshit right off the bat. I'll be the one to give myself the answers. It's a shame because I was feeling good, but races are won with your head. Today, intelligence was lacking," she admits.

"It's a huge disappointment, especially because the girls gave so much for me and I wasn't able to finish. It was a bit of a clown show. We'll make up for it in a week."