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Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Elisa Longo Borghini has won her second straight edition of the Giro dell’Emilia as she out-climbed the rest of the peloton on the steep slopes up to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca, on the outskirts of the city of Bologna. The Olympic Bronze Medallist overcame the early attack from Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) to beat the South African to the line by three seconds. Belarusian Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM) completed the podium another ten seconds back. 
“It was a very good race, it was a fast one and we worked really well,” Longo Borghini said afterwards. “Chloe [Hosking] managed to be always in the top three in the sprints, and in the end the team led me out before the climb. “Chloe was very, very good, Gio [Bronzini] pulled a lot, and Emma [Johansson] was able to help me to find a good position.” The 99km race started in the Emilia Romagna capital of Bologna, before following a completely flat parcours for almost its entire length. The final 2.2km consisted of the climb to San Luca, however, with an average gradient of 10.8%, and some slopes as steep as 18%. This was where Longo Borghini and Moolman-Pasio escaped the peloton, and ride on to contest the victory. 
“I followed Moolman when she attacked,” Longo Borghini explained. “At first she go some metres, but then I came back on her. At 250 metres I started my sprint, because I know I need a long sprint, and I was able to win. “I’m very happy to win this race again. The climb is very tough, which is good for me, and the finish is very beautiful.” Longo Borghini’s victory is her second consecutive win in the Italian late-season race and, following Bronzini’s third place of 2014, means that a black and orange rider has featured on the podium of all three editions to date. Hosking’s performance in the two intermediate sprints, where she finished first in San Matteo della Decima and third in San Giovanni in Pesiceto, meant that the winner of La Course was also on the podium as the winner of that classification. 
Result
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