It was February of 2011, and the Opening Weekend was truly that: the first weekend of professional bike racing of the year for the women’s peloton. The start-list included eventual winner Emma Johansson of Team Hitec Products UCK, Annemiek van Vleuten of Nederland bloeit and the only Australian in that peloton: Tiffany Cromwell, racing for Lotto-Honda. Alongside them was an unassuming 19-year old Italian rider for Top Girls Fassa Bortolo, who had only raced two major races the year before and finished one.
Elisa Longo Borghini would get fifth in her first Omloop het Nieuwsblad, a stunning result for a rookie with scant cobble experience. Much, much more was to come.
Longo Borghini, who now races for UAE Team ADQ in her 15th season as a pro, is a rarity in a sport like cycling, particularly in the modern era. Professional bike races are among the most unpredictable, uncontrollable pursuits in sport. The variables that go into a singular race are innumerable: Punctures, positioning, crashes, illness, etc. Regardless, Longo Borghini has delivered consistent results almost every year to build a broad and varied palmarès that is the envy of almost any other racer in the sport.
José Been
Those include two Tours of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and other classics, plus a bronze medal at the 2021 Olympic road race and several major stage races. Her wins come in various different ways. A late solo breakaway is also a preferred way to win, as exemplified in her first pro win in stage five of Internationale Thuringen Rundfahrt der Frauen in 2012, and most recently at Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025. But she can win from a reduced bunch sprint, as seen last year at Flanders. Longo-Borghini can also lead from the front in the mountains, as she showed winning the 2024 Giro d’Italia Donne overall. She is the puzzle piece a team can pick up and move about the racing calendar for guaranteed top results.
What makes such a champion? It is not just talent; talent is aplenty in the Women’s WorldTour. Riders wouldn’t be lining up to races of this calibre without a slice of talent to get them there. No, instead what Longo Borghini embodies more than most is this: class. It is in her attempts for victories that end in a loss where the true character and class of this Italian comes out, and her fierce competitiveness.
Take for example her gutsy late move in the closing kilometres of last month's Milan-San Remo Donne. Hearts broke as she was chased down by rival Lotte Kopecky (SDWorx-Protime) to set up Kopecky's teammate, Lorena Wiebes, to take victory in the small group sprint. Longo Borghini had every right to be upset in her comments and body language. She is an Italian in il tricolore no less. Winning M-SR? That would be poetry.
After her agonizing loss, she paid respect to the winner, but voiced both her disappointment and a steely resolve that, ahead of her Flanders defense on Sunday, rivals would be well-served to heed: "I should say that it’s only a bike race, but it’s an important bike race. It hurts to be caught at a hundred metres [to go], but I played my cards. I stayed calm until the last 2.5 km. Chapeau to Lorena Wiebes and next time they’re not going to catch me."
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and she was good to her word. At Dwars door Vlaanderen, Longo Borghini attacked in the closing kilometres of the race to win by 29 seconds over the chasing bunch – led home by none other than Kopecky, the rider who'd ended her San Remo dreams. It expands on an hypothesis discussed on the Wheel Talk podcast in February: A rider cannot be the best without confidence they are one of the best.
After her long-range victory at Paris-Roubaix in 2022, Longo Borghini stated, “If you don't believe in your attack you never win.” When ELB goes off the front, expect fireworks every time, and if there is not an immediate reaction from her rivals, the race is all but done.
Lidl-Trek was home to many of these victories. Her six-year tenure there was the longest of any team she had been at prior. During her time on the team, she won the Giro, Flanders, Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and was four times in il tricolore as Italian road race champion (‘20, ‘21, ‘23, ‘24). Longo Borghini was not only the winningest rider on that team, she was the most consistent. The support of her team allowed her to attack, sprint and breakaway with relative ease. Her second victory at De Ronde came from superb teamwork on a grim day in Flanders as Shirin Van Anrooij who rode out of her skin to ensure Longo Borghini had the support needed.
Her winning ways have only followed her into her new home of UAE Team ADQ. So far, the team has enjoyed six wins in 2025. That’s half of their total victories in all of 2024. Three of this year's wins come from Longo Borghini at the UAE Tour (overall and a stage) and Dwars. On her move to UAE Team ADQ, Longo Borghini cited the need for a fresh start and to face new challenges. Notably, she said in an interview, “I would like to experience that [the unknown] in what could be the last three, four years of my life as a racer.” Longo Borghini is hungry in 2025, and she’s been allowed to hunt.
A change agent is almost always necessary to inject new energy into a workplace or team. Someone who is usually put in towards the top of the chain of command, with results or notoriety that lowers the barrier to buy-in from those around them. An example from the sporting world is Christian Ronaldo’s move from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009, where he enabled Real Madrid to challenge the dominance of FC Barcelona. Notably, it was the mindset Ronaldo brought into the club that was the force for change, the belief that they can always win.
Notice any similarities here? The core theme is belief. Inject a rider with a performance mindset and proven results into a team, and all of a sudden there is a groundswell of loyalty, fight and confidence. It's worth noting that ELB didn't come over alone from Lidl-Trek; young talent Elynor Bäckstedt and seasoned road captain Brodie Chapman also made the switch. And it's clear they've brought the confidence they cultivated at their previous team with them. In the world of pro cycling, that is a key component of the recipe for success. UAE Team ADQ have had a lacklustre few years with little consistency. Now they see, through Longo Borghini, the opportunity to play for the win. It’s contagious.
The young Irish rider Lara Gillespie has proven a strong rising talent, taking her chances with confidence and notching a string of top-five finishes in one-days this spring. Team stalwart Silvia Persico has shown intent on impacting results in races typically not ‘for’ her, such as Jebel Hafeet at the UAE Tour where she got 2nd. Karlijn Swinkels, Dominika Wlodarczyk and Sofia Bertizzolo are finding their flow again on the results sheet. There is never a question from the riders if they can do it. Longo Borghini ensures they believe in their attacks, as there is no other alternative in her eyes.
On the other side, Lidl-Trek have lost the pro’s pro. As a consequence, even as the American outfit added serious talent in Anna Henderson, Reijanne Markus, Emma Norsgaard and Niamh Fisher-Black, the team is fighting to match the performance of previous seasons.
Lidl-Trek still have their stars. Elisa Balsamo, Ellen Van Dijk, Van Anrooij are still on board and the above quartet bolsters their ranks. Yet, is there a rider on that roster as consistent as Longo Borghini? The team has attempted to top the results sheet with Balsamo, but truly she’s been the only shot they’ve fired in big races. Balsamo is a fast finisher, but not the versatile puzzle piece that is her countrywoman. Meanwhile, Longo Borghini is again peaking at just the right time.
This weekend is the crescendo of Belgium’s classics: De Ronde. It offers a very real test for the appetite of the 33-year-old Italian. Twice in her career has Longo Borghini been victorious in Oudenaarde. On Sunday she will be lining up against an SD Worx-Protime team with a triple-pronged attack: Anna van der Breggen, Kopecky and Wiebes, with three Flanders wins among them.
If anyone can again topple that trio, it's ELB, the one who silenced pundits concerned about the SD Worx's dominance in March. I dare say she has quite the battle ahead of her, but she knows what it is to suffer. Win or lose, Longo Borghini is guaranteed to storm into hell and back before she gives in. She knows what is on the other side, as she did at her victory at the 2022 Paris-Roubaix, saying, “It’s like going through Dantesque hell, and all of a sudden you’re in paradise.”
So, there are indeed three certainties in life: death, taxes and Elisa Longo Borghini racing like it is her last.
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