|
||||
|
Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Elisa Longo Borghini finished in third place in the Orange Velodrome, the football stadium of Olympic Marseille, at the end of the La Course by Le Tour de France High Speed Pursuit race, to repeat her fantastic result from Thursday’s stage to the Col d’Izoard. The Italian Champion was just beaten in a sprint for the line by British Champion Lizzie Deignan (Boels-Dolmans), as the finished one minute and 52 seconds behind Izoard winner Annemiek van Vleuten. 
“The race was exciting,” Longo Borghini said. “It’s a nice new format, but it’s just a pity that Annemiek had such a big time gap because it would have been very, very exciting it we had been closer. “I worked with Boels at the beginning; I went through in some turns to show them that I was interested in going, but I let them do the most of the work.” Starting one minute and 23 seconds behind van Vleuten, the Italian Champion soon caught up with Deignan, who was waiting for fourth-place teammate Megan Guarnier, and the three riders rode together in pursuit of the lone Dutchwoman. Pressure from Longo Borghini on the climb to Notre-Dame de la Garde left Guarnier, but van Vleuten managed to hold on to her lead. The Dutchwoman crossed the line alone, and Deignan outsprinted Longo Borghini for second place. “I knew I could drop Guarnier on the climb so I went pretty hard, and in the end it was all about sprinting with Lizzie,” Longo Borghini explained. “Maybe I should have taken first place at the last corner, but I didn’t really recognise or remember how the turn was. So Lizzie went first and she finished before me. “That was a nice couple of races that I’ve done, and now it’s time to head home and focus on the next one,” she smiled. Photo Credit: ASO/Bruno Bade Result
|
||||
;