Women’s Tour stage 5: Elisa Longo Borghini wins summit finish

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek Segafredo) claimed the win on stage 5 of the Women’s Tour after a dramatic finish on the summit finish of Black Mountain. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM Racing) finished second, with Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) taking third on the line.

The win, and resulting bonus seconds put Longo Borghini on the same time as Brown in the GC but with the Australian retaining the leader’s jersey on count back with just one stage remaining in the race. Niewiadoma sits in third overall at just two seconds back.

Longo Borghini was set up perfectly by her teammates on the final climb and marked several moves from her rivals. The Italian also made several stinging attacks but couldn’t drop the likes of Brown, who came into the stage as the race leader. Longo Borghini surged for a final time with just over 150m to go and quickly opened up a gap on Niewiadoma and Brown.

“This climb a long one but it’s not that steep, so you can’t really make the difference. Plus we had a headwind. It was like attacking but hitting the wall. I trusted my sprint and went with 150m and I felt strong. I wanted to pay back all my teammates, who were really committed. This is for my teammates and the staff,” Longo Borghini said.

As expected the race came down to the final 5.5km climb of the Black Mountain with pitches of around 20 percent on some sections. Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) put in a surprise attack on the lower slopes but the sprinter was quickly reeled in by Trek Segafredo with Ellen van Dijk increasing the pace on the front of the already reduced peloton.

The Dutch rider, with Longo Borghini neatly tucked in on her wheel, caught Wiebes and the reduced the group to around 25 riders. Brown and Niewiadoma already looked isolated at that point and Van Dijk continued to push the pace until just over 2km to go.

At that point Longo Borghini put in her first acceleration. Only a handful of riders could match the Italian’s initial pace with Team BikExchange Jayco pair Alexandra Manly and Kristen Faulkner the first riders to follow Longo Borghini.

Brown paced herself perfectly, upping the pace slightly to regain contact but Longo Borghini’s move had reduced the front group to just ten riders as a strong headwind continued to blow. The pace slowed, allowing for a group of riders to come back, and Joscelin Lowden used that moment to make the first of her two attacks. The British rider was caught and it was Ashleigh Moolman (SD Worx) who went next with a powerful acceleration on the next hairpin.

The wind continued to hamper attacks but that didn’t stop Niewiadoma from trying her luck, despite a mechanical issue that appeared to affect her gear changing. Faulkner closed down that move and for a brief moment it looked as though Brown was in serious trouble. The Australian hung on though, and as the leaders entered the final 200m the stage was still up for grabs.

Longo Borghini moved to the front and accelerated on the left hand side of the road, as once more Brown found herself caught out, this time after Faulkner couldn’t follow the Italian’s pace. Brown came around Faulkner in an attempt to take third and limit her losses.

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