Paris-Roubaix Femmes 2022 - Elisa Longo Borghini times move to perfection to win Hell of the North

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek – Segafredo) timed her move to perfection to win Paris-Roubaix Femmes on Saturday.

The Italian champion timed her move to perfection – some 34km out – after a day of breakaways to solo her way to her first win of the season in a consummate performance. Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) finished second and Lucinda Brand (Trek – Segafredo) took third.

The biggest moment of note other than Longo Borghini’s stunning ride was Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) being disqualified when she took a bottle from the team car and held on a little too long for the commissaries' liking.

Conditions could not have been a larger contrast to last year’s inaugural race. Blue skies and sunshine greeted the riders at the start line in Denain, and it was a quick one from word go with a number of attacks off the front as the peloton set off for their initial laps of the French town. They were minus Marianne Vos, the pre-race favourite unluckily testing positive for Covid pre-race and pulling out as a result.

A group of five quickly established themselves, formed of Leonie Bos (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Amalie Lutro (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Katie Clouse (Human Powered Health), Tanja Erath (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Gaia Masetti (AG Insurance - NXTG Team) - Erath having had to work the hardest having missing the initial break to cross the gap and turn the lead group into a quintet.

They led up to the first section of cobblestones, with a gap of 1m 30s. While dry, dust was being kicked up as the leaders negotiated the Hornaing à Wandignies, the section where Lizzie Deignan made her famous decisive break last year. And the cobbles didn’t prove benign, doing for Bos and Clouse who both dropped straight out of the breakaway and back into the clutches of the peloton.

Trek-Segafredo's Eleonora van Dijk was on the front of the bunch and she put in such a turn up to and over that first set of cobbles that the peloton started to splinter, soon leaving a very elite bunch chasing the remaining leaders. Riding for Elisa Balsamo and Elisa Longo Borghini, van Dijk continued her huge turn and by Tilloy à Sars-et-Rosières, the gap was down to 25 seconds and the initial break were in sight.

Masetti’s glory bid was ended earlier than she’d hoped with a flat tyre sending her out of the breakaway, and on one straight section of cobbles with 70m to go, all hell rather appropriately broke loose.

Van Dijk and her team mate Chloe Hosking both punctured, the Dutchwomen managing to continue albeit slowly, while Hosking in a bid to pull to one side managed to come off her bike into a field. Both eventually made it to a team car at the end of the cobbles – but by then, SD Worx were on the front and driving the pace for Lotte Kopecky.

Erath wound up the last of the original breakaway to be caught, making it all the way until the 61km to go mark before being swallowed by the bunch. That left most of the favourites safely in the peloton as Orchies beckoned, that section not catching any of the leaders out.

The next segment of cobbles though, was the next place the race opened right up. Kopecky was mostly minding her own business, riding fourth wheel and keeping out of trouble when suddenly she found herself on the front. Putting her foot down, she made an opportunistic break for it and dragged Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team) with her. Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) managed to bridge to those two, and they soon had a 10-second lead as they made it to the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle in the lead.

Trek-Segafredo had a decision to make with a rider up the road as their leader, Elisa Balsamo dropped back with a flat tyre. They elected not to send riders back to help her, and although she made it back to the peloton, she exerted plenty of effort in doing so.

That left 40km to go, a very talented lead group of three up front and a slightly betwixt and between peloton not organising the chase. The big question remained – how long would they leave it before going after Kopecky and co?

Movistar answered that first, they were riding for Emma Norsgaard and sensed danger. Using the pave as a spring board, they cut the gap but then just as they caught the front three, news filtered in that Balsamo had been disqualified.

The Trek-Segafredo woman had been spotted holding onto a water bottle handed to her by the team car far longer than could be deemed acceptable, and that was that for the young Italian.

But as the peloton briefly caught their breath having reeled in the dangerous Kopecky, Balsamo’s team mate Longo Borghini was now free to go on the attack herself. With 34km to go she decided to stretch her legs, and very quickly picked up half a minute on a peloton, who had been caught napping.

Her move then splintered the peloton yet again in what was turning into a serious race of attrition, the leaders never able to switch off even for a moment. As they squabbled amongst themselves, reeling in counter-attacks, Longo Borghini was able to hold onto her lead as the kilometres ticked down. She did nearly lose it all on a sharp right-hander on the cobbles, supreme bike handling skills saving the Italian from a costly crash.

Surviving the last five-star section of cobbles, Carrefour de l'Arbre, with half a minute advantage, Longo Borghini was showing no signs of weakness although her face was etched with pain as she fixed her gaze firmly forwards with the finish in sight.

Behind the chase was left to Kopecky, but the Belgian just didn’t have enough left in the tank to start cutting into that lead. Her team mate van den Broek-Blaak took over chasing duties, but despite being one of the most powerful riders in the peloton, she could only take a few seconds out of Longo Borghini’s lead. With no one willing to help those two, it was all eyes on the Italian out front.

She didn’t falter, handling all the final cobbled sections with ease to hit Roubaix with a lead of 31’. That came rapidly down behind as the chasers started to jostle for the other podium places, but it was all far too late to catch the Trek-Segafredo rider.

She entered the famous peloton alone, and was able to sit up as she crossed the line with just enough energy left to raise both arms aloft and roar in delight. A 34km lone breakaway from the Italian was what it took for the win today.

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