Trofeo Alfredo Binda rarely gives you a simple script, but this year it felt especially unforgiving. A cold morning and overnight snow forced organisers to cut out a section of the early route, trimming the race down to 146km, yet the finale still delivered the same familiar grind: repeated laps, relentless positioning, and a slow tightening of the screw until only the riders with both legs and patience still had a say.
Out of that attrition came a breakthrough win for Karlijn Swinkels, who took her first Women’s WorldTour victory in Cittiglio after a late three-rider move survived the final circuit. Anna van der Breggen tried to turn the final Orino climb into an elimination test, Mie Bjørndal Ottestad rode with the urgency of a rider who knew she needed to keep it moving, but when the sprint finally arrived, Swinkels had the sharpest punch.
A shortened start, then a long wait for the race to bite
With the early climb removed from the course, the opening hour became a strangely tense stalemate. The bunch rolled quickly but with little willingness to give the day away. When Hannah Ludwig slipped clear, she was granted a workable advantage, yet never the kind of freedom that would force a full scale chase. UAE Team ADQ, already prominent near the front, kept the gap under control while other teams sat in, knowing the real racing would start when the circuit ramps began to stack up.
Once the race hit the finishing loops, the tone changed. The repeated climbs at Casale and Orino turned the day into a gradual sorting process. It was not one explosive moment, more a steady wearing down where each lap removed a few more riders from contention, and every descent back into Cittiglio became a fight to be top ten wheels before the next rise.
Ludwig was eventually reeled in on the approach to Orino, and that was the signal that the race had moved from management to aggression.
Orino and Casale begin to strip the race down to contenders
From the third lap onwards, the attacks came in waves. Riders tried on Casale because it is short, steep enough to sting, and followed by sections where hesitation can be punished. Others waited for Orino, where the tempo efforts are long enough to make gaps meaningful, but not so long that a single climber can simply ride everyone off their wheel.
Elisa Longo Borghini made repeated moves, Kasia Niewiadoma pressed into the same spaces, and Noemi Rüegg was active whenever the pace briefly softened. None of those efforts stuck for long, but each one narrowed the group and forced teams to spend riders they would rather have saved for the final lap.
By the time the race entered the last 20km, it had become a test of who could still respond after two hours of constant micro efforts.
Photo Credit: GettyThe decisive move forms, and UAE stack the numbers perfectly
The race’s winning shape finally emerged when a group slipped away containing both depth and balance: Swinkels, Eleonora Gasparrini and Silvia Persico for UAE Team ADQ, plus Van der Breggen, Pfeiffer Georgi and Ottestad. It was not a pure counterattack on a single climb, more the product of the day’s cumulative fatigue and one moment of hesitation behind that created just enough separation to establish a gap.
UAE’s strength mattered immediately. With multiple riders present, they could keep the move alive through the flat sections between the climbs, and they could afford to lose riders later while still retaining a winning option. That is exactly how it played out. As the finale tightened, Gasparrini and Persico were shed, then Georgi began to drift as the pace rose again, leaving the core of the race where it needed to be: Swinkels still there, still fresh enough to finish, and still supported by the damage UAE’s earlier work had done.
Van der Breggen forces the issue on the final Orino, but cannot shake Swinkels
On the last ascent of Orino, Van der Breggen did what she always does when she wants clarity, she lifted the pace until it became uncomfortable to simply sit in. Ottestad clung on, Swinkels held her line, and the chase behind never fully reconnected. The summit came with enough road left to be dangerous, but not enough to allow a full regroup if the front committed.
Ottestad’s ability to return after being dropped, and then animate the run-in, proved crucial to keeping the move honest. Van der Breggen could sit on at times, Swinkels could measure her effort, and the chasers behind were left needing both organisation and belief. They never found enough of either.
The final kilometre became a game of patience. Van der Breggen waited, Swinkels watched, Ottestad tried to keep the speed up, and when the sprint opened, Swinkels delivered it exactly as she needed to. She launched cleanly and held her line to the finish, taking the biggest win of her career so far in the town that defines this race.
Trofeo Alfredo Binda 2026 result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Main photo credit: Getty
