Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) was the only sprinter with a lead-out rider left going into the final 500 metres of stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, but had to settle for second after her final teammate Elisa Longo Borghini took a wrong turn whilst leading the peloton.
GC hopeful Longo Borghini was initially recorded as finishing nine seconds down on the winner of the stage, Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM, and lost time to her overall rivals. But this was later reversed, and the Italian was given the same time as the winner.
“It’s pretty clear what happened, and it was just my mistake,” the Trek-Segafredo rider said after the stage. “I knew the road, I knew that I had to go straight, but all of a sudden I just felt like I needed to go on the left. I was even scared because there was a corner and I didn’t know that there was one.”
The road split into two just before the finishing straight, with Longo Borghini slowing and turning left onto the deviation for the Tour de France Femmes race vehicles instead of following the route to the right.
“It’s not anybody’s fault but mine. I’m happy that nobody got harmed and everything went smooth and the peloton is safe.”
The team and Longo Borghini initially refused to speak to the media at the finish as they awaited news on whether the time gap would be upheld or not, but the 30-year-old seemed happier once the GC situation was confirmed.
“Now we will laugh about it,” the Italian said. “But the main thing is that I didn’t cause any crashes or harm any other riders, because this is something that can become very dangerous. So sorry to the peloton. I just don’t know what happened, just laugh about me now, it’s good.”
The error from Longo Borghini may have contributed to Balsamo missing out on the win, as the World Champion had to close a gap to Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing Xstra) and stage winner Wiebes in the final few hundred metres.
Despite the error in the finale, Balsamo praised her team’s efforts on the race’s longest stage.
“Yes, they tried their best,” Balsamo said. “They did a very good lead out and then yes, I just tried to sprint.
“It was a very long stage. We didn’t go full gas so it was very long. My teammates did a great job so I really have to thank them.”
