Greig Leach

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) had spent a good part of the final twenty-five kilometers pushing the pace in order to keep any of the chasers from catching back up. Conversely, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) had spent that same time surfing the wheels of others thus saving her energy for the final ascend up to the central piazza of Sienna. When they were about 500 meters from the finish, Kopecky jumped the Italian Champion. Longo Borghini just didn’t have enough left in her legs to go with the Rainbow Jersey on Kopecky’s gritty shoulders. As they swung around the final corner, Kopecky glanced back on more time just to make sure that neither the Lidl-Trek rider nor anyone else were going to surprise her at the line. This will have to do with her victory image since her victory salute at the line was hidden from the TV camera by a spectator’s cellphone. He got a great shot of Kopecky winning her second Strade Bianche Donne, but we did not.