Greig Leach

This foursome of Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and her teammate, Shirin Van Anrooij, along with Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) had built up a twenty three second lead on the five chasers behind. They in turn had another minute and a half on the remnants of the peloton. So with just under ten kilometers to race, it seems that the winner will be one of these four women. Longo Borghini has the advantage with a teammate in the group, but her long solo attempt may have drained too much energy from her legs. With that, the advantage then swings to Vos, who has the best sprint of the group (all things being equal). It will be exciting to see the race strategies play out as they draw ever closer to the flame rouge. The one thing they can’t do is play cat and mouse and let the chasers back into the race.