{"id":167956,"date":"2025-09-29T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167956\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:18:08","slug":"chapeau-they-were-the-bravest-elisa-longo-borghini-congratulates-winning-breakaway-takes-time-to-reflect-on-poor-performance-at-rwanda-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/167956\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Chapeau, they were the bravest’ – Elisa Longo Borghini congratulates winning breakaway, takes time to reflect on poor performance at Rwanda Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elisa Longo Borghini <\/a>expressed her disappointment and plans for reflection after a poor performance in the elite women’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships <\/a>in Kigali on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But rather than give too much attention to her own mistakes, the Italian champion chose to congratulate the three riders: new world champion Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada)<\/a>, silver medallist Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) and bronze medallist Mavi Garcia (Spain), who risked it all in a successful breakaway and came out on top.<\/p>\n

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“It’s pretty clear what happened. Everyone was looking at each other, and we lost the race,” Longo Borghini told the assembled press in the mixed zone.<\/p>\n

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“Besides this, we should give credit to the ones who were in the front and who were the bravest because they made a move, and they believed, and they succeeded.”<\/p>\n

The winning breakaway split off the front of a reshuffling lead group in the closing lap of the elite women’s 164.6km road race held on a 15.1km city circuit that included two brutal climbs: C\u00f4te de Kigali Golf and the cobbled C\u00f4te de Kimihurura.<\/p>\n

While the field split apart behind the trio, they were roughly a minute ahead of the main group, which included major favourites: Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot (France), Longo Borghini and Demi Vollering (Netherlands), all looking at one another, none taking responsibility to either close the gap or make a move of their own.<\/p>\n

“Instead, we were a bit stupid, a bit silly, controlling each other and thinking that we would come back in the blink of an eye,” Longo Borghini said.<\/p>\n

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“In the end, they were strong riders up front. I think we underestimated their strength and the fact that they are top-level riders. Chapeau to them.”<\/p>\n

Longo Borghini had a successful season this year, winning her second consecutive overall title at the Giro d’Italia<\/a>, and she had the support of a full squadra azzurra of seven riders in their attempt to win the rainbow jersey.<\/p>\n

“For me, I will have to go to my room and reflect on my behaviour in the race because I was very silly. I used my teammates, they were really strong, and then I did not deliver,” she said.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Cyclingnews to unlock unlimited access to our coverage of the first-ever UCI Road World Championships on African soil. Our team of journalists will bring you all the major storylines, in-depth analysis, and more directly from the action in Rwanda as the next rainbow jerseys are decided. Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elisa Longo Borghini expressed her disappointment and plans for reflection after a poor performance in the elite women’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-167956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}