At first look and with out occupied with it an excessive amount of, Elisa Longo Borghini’s choice to go away a group like Lidl-Trek, the place she has shone so brightly for the final six years, feels borderline incomprehensible.
However whereas that is precisely what she has now achieved, and with a respectably lengthy new contract as effectively, switching to UAE Workforce ADQ for the subsequent three seasons, it seems Longo Borghini solely wants the briefest of explanations for her imminent departure to a brand new group to make full sense.
Relating to outcomes, the explanation why it nonetheless stays such a significant, career-defining, break for Longo-Borghini to go away Lidl-Trek all however communicate for themselves. In 2024 alone the Italian veteran’s victories along with her squad included the Tour of Flanders for the second time, the Nationwide Championships street title for the fifth time, and the Giro d’Italia Girls for the primary, main the latter from starting to finish. A win within the 2022 Paris-Roubaix was one other main spotlight of many.
But it surely’s not solely that she’s loved a lot success on a sporting degree that makes Lidl-Trek so vital for Longo Borghini. As Longo Borghini places it in an interview with Cyclingnews late within the season about her present Lidl-Trek squad, “I turned the rider I’m right this moment due to them.”
It could be true that the phrase she then makes use of, “at Lidl-Trek it appears like I am in a household”, is one that’s commonly trotted out by bike riders to explain their squads. Nevertheless, in Longo Borghini’s case the very fact her husband, Jacopo Mosca, at present rides for Lidl-Trek’s males’s squad, provides the drained previous grande famiglia cliché a way more genuine ring than typical.
Put the emotional, sporting {and professional} hyperlinks all collectively, anyway, and also you’d suppose that for Longo Borghini that the concept of leaving Lidl-Trek is all however inconceivable. However then it seems, it isn’t solely logical she is leaving, however you nearly can not help however cheer her on for wanting to take action.
“To begin with I need to thank Lidl-Trek for what they did for me, all the assistance they gave to me,” she tells Cyclingnews in an interview shortly earlier than collaborating in her final race of the season, the Reinas de la Alhambra criterium in Granada.
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“I turned the rider I’m now due to them and I felt like I used to be in a household.
“However on the opposite facet of issues, I form of wanted a change, like a brand new problem or a brand new journey. Additionally, I wished to face the unknown just a little bit, as a result of now I am 32 and I want to expertise that in what may very well be the final three, 4 years of my life as a racer: perhaps, who is aware of?”
Exterior the consolation zone
Longo Borghini is sitting in the identical resort foyer as Mavi García (Liv AIUIa Jayco), additionally collaborating within the Reina de la Alhambra criterium, when she discusses her short-to-mid-term future with Cyclingnews. Given the previous Spanish Nationwide Champion is about to begin one other 12 months of racing aged 40, the Italian star may additionally hardly ask for a clearer supply of first-hand inspiration for longevity within the sport. But it surely seems Longo Borghini’s willpower to not get caught in a rut earlier than she does lastly stop – at no matter age – is super-strong already.
“I am not going to be a bike owner endlessly and I wished further expertise exterior my consolation zone,” she explains.
“I am an bold individual, I like challenges, I prefer to go the place I would not say – I would not say no one would go as a result of it isn’t true – I might relatively say I prefer to go the place there may be stuff to find.
“And I noticed in that group [UAE] there can be a great way to find a brand new surroundings, a brand new form of world generally. So I simply wished to try this.”
Longo Borghini is not heading into a totally unfamiliar territory at UAE, although. Her coach Paolo Slongo – to whom she devoted her 2024 Flanders win, given his help in her comeback from a troublesome 2023 season – is coming along with her as effectively. Then two Lidl-Trek teammates are additionally leaping throughout, Brodie Chapman and Elynor Bäckstedt.
“There can be many different folks I do know there, quite a lot of Italians, too, so it may be acquainted – a brand new problem however then again I do know the place I am going,” Longo Borghini says.
“It will be new however I actually hope we will create a great group of individuals working collectively.”
Settling scores on the Giro d’Italia
But regardless of the future holds and even in a profession with quite a few excessive factors, she acknowledges that capturing the Giro this 12 months was a landmark success. With participations stretching again to 2011 and podium finishes in 2020 and 2017, her dwelling Grand Tour was definitely a win she’d been longing for a very long time.
However the truth that she was mendacity second total in 2023 within the Giro when she crashed after which needed to DNS because of her accidents absolutely makes this win even sweeter. Significantly as she then managed to guide the 2024 race from starting to finish, within the course of changing into the primary Italian Giro champion since – remarkably – Fabiana Luperini manner again in 2008.
“If I used to be in search of a spotlight in 2024, I might begin with the Giro, it has been a objective I’ve chasing for thus lengthy and it was additionally an exhilarating finale,” she says.
“We did give attention to the Giro from the start of the 12 months, we knew the route was good for me. The Tour de France was extra for the kids within the group, like Gaia [Realini] and Shirin [van Anrooij]. I might have gone there to help them and perhaps hunt for some stage wins.
“So we had a full give attention to within the Giro. I went there with the ambition of being within the prime 5 within the opening TT, and I ended up profitable the TT and it was for me it was an excellent honour to put on the maglia rosa from the start to the tip.”
One other main spotlight of 2024, in fact, was taking the Tour of Flanders for the second time in her profession. Often for a rider, profitable a motorcycle race the primary time stays probably the most particular of all of them. However as Longo Borghini says, the influence of her victory this time round was far better.
“Again then after I received it in 2015 I used to be a form of a child and I used to be probably not occupied with what it was,” she explains.
“I sensed it however I used to be not absolutely conscious of the significance of a victory like Flanders. Now I am a extra mature lady and I grew up loads in the previous couple of years” – “Fortunately” she provides with amusing – “so I’ve a full appreciation of what Flanders itself means for biking.
“It is that I didn’t have it previously, however now I really feel it extra, it is a victory that has actual significance.”
What victories in races as totally different as Flanders and the Giro confirmed, too, was that at 32, Longo Borghini is way from shedding her versatility with age. Somewhat, the other is proving true, and once more that renders what she could possibly obtain with UAE Workforce ADQ an much more intriguing prospect.
“Completely,” the Italian agrees. “I imply, going from profitable Flanders to profitable the Giro is kind of particular and I recognise that, I am fairly pleased with that, however I am positive I couldn’t have achieved it unassisted,” she says along with her sometimes humble air.
“I had a group that was at full energy for the Giro and Paolo [Slongo] was my coach and he was absolutely devoted to me and I actually must thank Lidl-Trek for all the assistance they gave to me.”
Unfinished enterprise: the Tour and the Worlds
The subsequent step for Longo Borghini at UAE Workforce ADQ will possible be to see how her ambitions match with these of the squad. However there may be already one main race the place she clearly has a way of unfinished enterprise for 2025 and past. That might be the Tour de France Femmes, in fact, the place a promising sixth place within the first version of the revived race, in 2022, was adopted by two brutal collection of misfortunes within the following years.
In 2023, after crashing and withdrawing from the Giro d’Italia Girls, she returned to compete within the Tour de France Femmes however was as soon as once more compelled to desert earlier than stage 7 as a consequence of a pores and skin an infection, capping off a difficult 12 months. Then in 2024, she did not even make it to the startline as a consequence of a coaching crash shortly beforehand. As Longo Borghini agrees with a wry snort, life has ‘not been honest to her’ within the Tour de France up to now.
“It positively hasn’t,” she says. “I do not need to snub the Tour de France in any respect, it is simply that life retains on giving me lemons when I’ve to go there!
“I might have cherished to complete it [in 2023] and I might have cherished to have raced it this 12 months. To be sincere, after I was watching the phases afterwards I felt fairly foolish as a result of once you crash on a coaching day, you actually really feel foolish. And particularly if the crash makes you skip probably the most prestigious occasions on the calendar.
“I do not know the best way to clarify the sensation in English. However I felt like ‘out’ of what I belonged to [laughs] and actually silly. Properly, form of, a bit. Definitely having to skip the Tour de France was irritating, I might say.”
It is nearly stunning to listen to a rider being this harsh on themselves – and being so prepared to confess it, too. But it surely’s additionally testomony to how prime names like Longo Borghini can overcome or perhaps use these arduous emotions to drive themselves on. Definitely, the Italian is decided to set the document straight within the years to come back. Possibly as quickly as subsequent July.
“Final 12 months I’ve to overlook the final phases which had been probably the most iconic ones and this 12 months I did not even begin as a result of I used to be a ‘mummy’ [wrapped in bandages from the injuries – Ed].
“So I am like, let’s hope that subsequent 12 months [2025] all the pieces falls into place and a minimum of I can get there. For the second my largest ambition is to begin the Tour de France and to complete it.”
Longo Borghini does have her eyes on different targets as effectively, although, beginning in April, the place too many near-misses in Liège-Bastogne-Liège – she’s completed second each in 2024 and in 2023 and 6 occasions within the prime ten – is a matter she’d like very to resolve in 2025. Then on the different finish of the calendar, there’s one other race that for Longo Borghini in 2025 will acquire an additional layer of significance to its already appreciable status – and that is all because of its location subsequent September.
“I might actually like to attempt to win Liège as a result of it is a race I really feel in my coronary heart. However I will attempt to do effectively once more within the World Championships, too, specifically as a result of it is in Rwanda,” she says, “as a result of it is in Africa, which is the place life began, and that makes it form of further particular.”
Fairly aside from the connections with the beginnings of humanity itself, wanting on the Worlds on a strictly private degree, Longo Borghini’s personal performances within the Worlds are hardly to be sneezed at – and once more, it is testomony to her outstanding consistency.
Her first of three bronze medals was secured in her second 12 months as a professional, manner again in 2012 and her newest got here simply this 12 months behind Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Chloé Dygert (USA). Given her evident refusal merely to sleep on her laurels or keep in her consolation zone, irrespective of the context, it is arduous to consider that is nearly as good as it is going to ever get for the Italian star, although. And it turns on the market’s but one more reason for Longo Borghini to be further motivated in regards to the Rwanda Worlds, too.
As her feedback about appreciating the significance of the Tour of Flanders to the Belgians or her causes for leaving Lidl-Trek already confirmed too, Longo Borghini has a powerful sense of perspective. So it is maybe no shock that one factor boosting her enthusiasm for a rainbow jersey in 2025 is she additionally thinks that the World Championships in Rwanda will remind folks how a lot the game is gaining an more and more worldwide texture.
As she places it, skilled biking has been stretching more and more far past its conventional European and – to a lesser extent – American strongholds for a while now. Rwanda is the most recent place to replicate that, and maybe probably the most vital milestones in that course of, too.
“I am very excited each time I see extra folks from Africa within the peloton,” she says. “I get the sensation that biking is getting extra inclusive, and it is getting extra inexpensive. I like to see the best way we’re seeing Eritreans, and and even a Nigerian rider [Ese Lovina Ukpeseray with the Canyon-SRAM Generation team – Ed.] now within the peloton.
“I feel that is how sport needs to be, sport needs to be democratic and open to all people. So it is good that the World Championships are there, perhaps we will encourage some folks and perhaps we will convey one thing [of our sport] to a unique place, too.”
