Cittiglio is Italian once more: the “Binda Cup” goes to Elisa Longo Borghini

The 2013 Binda Trophy. The victory by Elisa Longo Borghini (Hitec Products UCK), this afternoon, in Cittiglio, was a double success. The athlete from Ossola, rather surprisingly, won the 6th "Binda Trophy" (which counts for the World Cup), the women’s cycling race that takes place in Varese Province, which has become the most important women’s race in Italy. The success aside, Longo Borghini managed, where champions, such as Guderzo, Bronzini and Cantele, had failed, to return the Italian flag to the highest position in Cittiglio. The last Italian successes were in 2000, a lifetime ago, when Fabiana Luperini was the first to reach the line in Via Valcuvia. Since then, there have only been foreign successes, almost all noble, starting with the three of Marianne Vos, who was defeated today.

The Dutch champion has, without doubt, been the "guiding light" of the race, as well as the most predicted, but this time she was unable to follow Longo Borghini, who broke away at around the two thirds’ mark in the race, first, with the Australian Spratt, and then alone. It was an Emma Pooley-type test, to mention the last woman cyclist to win by breaking away a long way before the finish. The burst that left Spratt behind her came on the penultimate climb of the Orino hill, and from then on, Elisa rode a superb race. It mattered little that Marianne Vos had personally begun to lead the chase, with the support of her Rabobank team, and her temporary allies of the Specialized Lululemon team. Initially, Longo Borghini’s lead varied somewhat, but then, from the bell onwards, her advantage remained more than a minute and a half, also because, behind her, there was no clear decision to chase. And so, the jostling was only for the runner-up places, where Spratt was caught by Johansson and Van Dijk, and the three crossed the line in that order. However, in Cittiglio, the spectators were all on the side of Elisa Longo Borghini, who is from a very sporting family (her mother is Guidina Dal Sasso, who competed in cross-country skiing in the 1980s, and her brother, Paolo, has raced alongside Basso and Nibali, in the Liquigas team), who now, not yet 22, has won her first World Cup race. And beaten Vos, to top it all.

JUNIORS: VICTORY IN LITHUANIA – Before the Elite race, there was the Da Moreno Trophy, the extremely popular race for junior cyclists along the roads of the Valcuvia, which had returned after a number of years’ absence. Under the rain, the race was won by a Lithuanian woman, Milda Jankauskaite, wearing the jersey of her national team. At the end of the 61 km, five women broke away, with Jankauskaite proving to be the fastest on the straight roads that rise gently to Cittiglio, followed by the French cyclists, Serevine Eraud and Arianna Fidanza (Eurotarget). In the five-woman group, there was another French woman, Greta Richioud, and the Dane, Uttrup Ludwig. The Italian Ilaria Bonomi finished ahead of most of the group.

Binda Trophy (Laveno Mombello – Cittiglio, 121 km)

Final order: 1) Elisa LONGO BORGHINI (Italy – Hitec) in 3h12’16"; 2) Emma Johansson (Sweden – Orica) 1’44"; 3) Eleonora Van Dijk (Holland – Specialized); 4) Amanda Spratt (Australia – Orica) 1’51"; 5) Chantal Blaak (Holland – Tibco) 2’21"; 6) Marianne Vos (Holland); 7) Annemiek Van Vleuten (Holland); 8) Rossella Ratto (Italy); 9) Anna Van der Breggen (Holland); 10) Carmen Small (USA).