Elisa Longo Borghini has won the Tre Valli Varesine for women. The 30-year-old Trek-Segafredo rider, who also won the Giro dell’Emilia last Saturday, broke away from an elite group in the final and crossed the line solo. Behind Longo Borghini, Veronica Ewers was second, Ane Santesteban was third.
The women’s race of the Tre Valli Varesine was 88.9 kilometres long and started in Busto Arsizio. From there, the course was set for Varese, where a final round of approximately twelve kilometres awaited. This local loop had the Montello (1 km at 5.2%) and the Casbeno (2.5 km at 4.9%) as executioners.
With Elisa Balsamo, Elisa Longo Borghini, Marta Cavalli, Mavi García and defending champion Arlenis Sierra, among others, several big names were at the departure. They kept quiet in the early stages. It was instead Alice Gasparini (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria) who rode alone in front of the pack for a while. When she was taken back, Sophie-Wright (UAE Team ADQ) took off.
Jelena Eric, Sara Martín (Movistar), Leah Thomas (Trek-Segafredo), Morgane Coston (French national team), Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco), Elena Pirrone (Valcar-Travel&Service), Jade Wiel (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) and Kirstie van Haaften (Parkhotel Valkenburg) made the jump, but when Elisa Longo Borghini and Mavi García also crossed, several teams in the peloton felt the threat. They made sure that the gap was closed again. A complete peloton started the last twenty kilometres together.
In the last two laps, however, this peloton thinned out considerably. With a small group left at the front, Longo Borghini saw her chance to try again. The Italian started a solo move in the last ten kilometres. The winner of Saturday’s Giro dell’Emilia held out against the pursuers and thus booked her second victory in a row.
