"Tadej is the biggest rider in the world right now, and probably will be the biggest rider ever" - Elisa Longo Borghini inspired to become the Pogacar of women's UAE team
Cycling
After six seasons with the Lidl-Trek team, Italian national champion reigning Giro d'Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini has joined UAE Team ADQ for 2025. Now, the 33-year-old is looking to take up a similar role within the women's team, as Tadej Pogacar has done for the men's UAE Team Emirates - XRG in recent years.
As mentioned, Longo Borghini finally managed to add a Grand Tour win to her palmares in 2024, taking a narrow GC win ahead of Lotte Kopecky at the Giro d'Italia Women, firmly positioning her as one of the leading lights of the women's World Tour peloton. Already in 2025 too, Longo Borghini has proven her capabilities, taking the overall win on debut for UAE Team ADQ at the recent UAE Tour, taking a stage win in the process, something Pogacar himself will be looking to emulate in the coming weeks.
"In Lidl-Trek we had Mads Pedersen, and for me, he was a big inspiration," recalls Longo Borghini in conversation with Eurosport. "So I'm not starstruck (by being teammates with Pogacar) to be honest. I do recognise that Tadej is the biggest rider in the world right now, and probably will be the biggest rider ever. I have a lot of respect for him and I love the way he's riding his bike and is approaching the races. He really inspires me."
Being the female team's Pogacar is a daunting challenge though, given all the Slovenian has accomplished in his career. "I will probably never be able to do the same that he's doing," admits Longo Borghini honestly. "But surely, he is inspiring not only for myself, but for many, many other young riders, both female and male.
After her recent UAE Tour win, Longo Borghini is next set to be in action back in Italy as she looks for victory at Strade Bianche Donne on the 8th of March, a race she came agonisingly close to winning in 2024.
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Yawn! There were no ther top class sprinters there so he better have won! Let me know when he beats Jasper or Merlier or Milan!frieders309-04-2025
- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025