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Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Elisa Longo Borghini added a Bronze Medal in the European Championship Road Race to that she won in the Olympic Games, in Rio, Brazil, as she sprinted into third place in Plumelec, western France, today. The 25-year-old, riding in the white and blue colours of the Italian National Team, was part of a four-rider move on the final, tough drag to the finish, but was outpaced by Olympic Champion Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) and Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma at the line. 
“I'm very happy about the result,” Longo Borghini said afterwards. “I was ill the past week and I didn't expect to be in shape today, also because I wasn't 100% at the Time Trial [on Thursday].” The 109.6km race, around just under eight laps of a 13.9km circuit was scheduled to have been held in Nice, in the south of France, but was moved to the Breton town of Plumelec after the terrorist attack in July. Longo Borghini was joined in the Italian team by Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling teammate Giorgia Bronzini, and both were able to bide their time comfortably in the peloton as the race’s main breakaway group contained compatriot Anna Stricker. 
Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Amy Pieters of the Netherlands, Emma Johansson of Sweden and Audrey Cordon-Ragot of France - who was riding on her local Breton roads - were similarly comfortable in the peloton, as their teammates Lucinda Brand, former Wiggle Honda rider Emilia Fahlin and Séverine Eraud respectively were also in the breakaway group. As the race came together in the closing laps, and the breakaway was caught, the Italian team massed to the front in support of both Longo Borghini and Bronzini. Pieters and Cordon-Ragot were also fighting aggressively for their teams, while the Swedish team was protecting Johansson close to the front. 
As the final climb to the line approached, however, it was Niewiadoma that attacked, and was followed by van der Breggen, Longo Borghini and Belarus’ Alena Amialiusik. The quartet was joined by Lithuania’s Rasa Leleivyte as the lie approached, but the others had already begun to sprint, with van der Breggen proving the fastest. “My national team worked very well and until the end we were sure to go for Gio,” Longo Borghini explained. “I had to cover van der Breggen’s and Niewiadoma’s attacks, and in the end we were four to the finish line to sprint!” Proving that she did have the form, had the race stayed together to the line, Bronzini took the sprint for sixth place, ahead of old World Championship rival, the Netherlands’ Marianne Vos, with Johansson finishing eighth. Cordon-Ragot finished in 12th place in a group just behind them, while Pieters finished in the peloton, having given everything for her team. 
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