Three more race days to go on the 2025 WorldTour calendar.
Shirin van Anrooij on the attack at Gravel Worlds over the weekend.
Cor Vos
Nothing can top my newsletter last week, and if you’re wondering how many Taylor Swift references I put in the cycling content, I lost track, but it was at least 22.
The season is almost over, and those riders who are still racing on the road are currently in China, gearing up for the last WorldTour stage race of the year – the Tour of Chongming Island. Others are already enjoying their offseason or dusting off the cross or track bikes.
As for me, the smell of fresh snow is in the air.
First things first: Elisa Longo Borghini is on fire in Italy
I am a firm believer that the season should end with the World Championships, but if we have to have some races post-Worlds, I am happy to watch the newer Italian one-day events. We still don’t have an Il Lombardia for the women, but with RCS firing up a women’s edition of Milan-San Remo and moving the Giro d’Italia Women from July to early June to better align with the men’s race, I don’t think it’s out of the question that we will have a “race of the falling leaves” in the future. That said, there are currently no rumblings that I’ve heard about adding it to the calendar.
I already wrote a bit about Tre Valli Varesine in the last newsletter, but for the sake of leading us into the next race in Italy – Trofeo Tessile & Moda – where Elisa Longo Borghini put on another display of national pride, the highlights are above.
The second Italian one-day was a short one, only 95.3 km long, and ended with a 10 km-long climb. The start list included Longo Borghini, fresh off her Tre Valli win and with a strong UAE Team ADQ support squad, Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal), Ricarda Bauernfeind (in what is likely her final race for Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and her teammate Neve Bradbury, and Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health).
With a course like this, the winning move is always going to be made on that final climb. For those who have raced in North America, it’s giving the Tour of the Gila stage 1. Even if a breakaway did gain an advantage going into the base of the climb, they don’t have the ground to make up enough time to stay away from the stronger climbers once they start their efforts. And with the strength of UAE Team ADQ, no one was going to pull a sneaky move on Longo Borghini.
A large group of mostly Italian teams tried to get away, and they had almost two minutes over the peloton going into the final 20 km, but that gap came down insanely fast as the peloton geared up for the climb.
As expected, it was UAE Team ADQ who controlled the race for Longo Borghini, and even though Reusser made the first move at the base of the climb, she couldn’t shake the Italian champ.
Longo Borghini rode away from the new ITT World Champion with 3 km remaining and solo’d to her second victory of the week, with Reusser in second and Žigart riding to an impressive third.
The two highlights of the race for me: Longo Borghini signing off on an amazing first season with UAE Team ADQ, with plenty to build on next year, Žigart’s massive gains this year that promise a lot of success still to come, and another fantastic performance from Longo Borghini’s teammate Brodie Chapman who held on for fourth after doing some pacing for Longo Borghini into the climb. UAE Team ADQ are on a hiring spree that will turn heads, but they could also look internally for some additional leadership in the Australian rider who has become Longo Borghini’s new Audrey Cordon Ragot (the OGs get that reference).
Transfer update
Speaking of…
A moment for UAE Team ADQ, who are turning their super team into a super duper team with the additions of Mavi García, Pauliena Rooijakkers, and Megan Jastrab. With the addition of Longo Borghini for the 2025 season, it was clear that UAE Team ADQ were interested in bolstering their women’s team to match the success of their men’s. Thanks to that signing, they were able to take home a Giro d’Italia Women title on top of a number of top results, including two Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage victories. Now, they’ve added even more climbing talent with García and Rooijakkers.
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