CANYON//SRAM Racing’s Elise Chabbey sprinted to fourth place in today’s second-ever Paris Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. Elise was with a seven rider group that formed on sector five, Camphin-en-Pévèle, with 24km remaining in the race. Solo leader at the time, Elisa Longo Borghini (TFS), stayed away until the finish line in the Roubaix velodrome, with Elise sprinting from the small chase group to take fourth place.
“I’m disappointed but I’m also happy,” said Elise after she recovered from the race.
“This race is so painful! But with the crowd and the atmosphere around the race, I really enjoyed it and I pushed my limits. Everything about this race reinforces how much I love this sport. I recovered from an early crash in the race but was able to come back and I was feeling good. My teammates were supportive, and I want to say that especially Tiffany was really helpful to me today. Her positioning and team captain role were so good.”
Elise continued, “Then, in the final, I did the best I could. I just needed to understand better how to sprint on the velodrome.”
Tiffany said, “Paris Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift is a hectic race with a lot of chaos. That means you need to be flexible with the team plan. We went in with a two-prong attack of having Sarah and Elise as the protected riders. Unfortunately, Sarah was caught up in a crash and was never able to come back. We then gave full support to Elise.”
“Despite several bad luck crashes that reduced our numbers, we never gave up. With what we had, we supported each other. In the last 40km, Alice and I were with Elise and we tried our best. We missed some critical moves but were able to correct them. Elise put up a great fight all the way to the finish and rode a strong final for the team. She can be proud of her fourth place,” added Tiffany.
Teammate Shari Bossuyt crashed on three occasions but was able to continue to the finish. Sarah Roy also crashed and though finished the race, she was taken to the hospital for further medical assessment of her wrist.