It took four years of frustration, but the Italian champion and the sport’s biggest race finally formed a friendship.
Gruber Images, Cor Vos
Cycling is a tricky sport. There are many different elements riders need to harness in order to find success on the road. Strength and fitness are one; the mental game is another; teamwork, and then, of course, luck.
For Elisa Longo Borghini, those four elements have never lined up at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift … until this year.
Longo Borghini’s first Tour, in 2022, was fine; great, in fact. She finished sixth overall, with a couple of top five finishes on the earlier stages in addition to sixth and seventh on the two final challenging mountain stages. She was her team’s top finisher, and her overall result was all Trek-Segafredo walked away with that year.
That sixth-place finish was the only time Longo Borghini was able to cross the finish line at the Tour, until this year.
“The Tour de France Femmes is a wheel that spins,” Longo Borghini told Escape Collective during the 2025 offseason. “I had my luck in the Giro [d’Italia], and again I had my bad luck in the Tour.”
‘Perfectly imperfect’: Elisa Longo Borghini reflects on her 2025 Giro victory
As told exclusively to Escape, here’s the Italian champion’s account of winning last year’s Giro d’Italia.
“I don’t know why; I really want to be friends with the Tour de France, but the Tour doesn’t want me. I have a big goal for this year, which is finishing the Tour de France. It’s my main goal for the season to cross the line of the last stage of the Tour. Honestly, since 2022, I haven’t finished the Tour, and I don’t know why …”
Perhaps it was finally time for the wheel to spin in favour of the Italian champion.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope