Giro d’Italia Women winner Elisa Longo Borghini announced today on X (formerly Twitter) that she will not start the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift this Monday, August 12, due to the lingering effects of a training crash this past week. Although she didn't sustain any fractures, the Italian cyclist shared that she "left a lot of skin on the road" and is currently unable to ride her bike.
She added, “I feel gutted not to be alongside my teammates to fight for a great Tour.”
Longo Borghini has experienced a mix of highs and lows at the French Grand Tour over the past two editions. In 2022, she finished sixth overall after playing a key role in the race. However, in 2023, after crashing and withdrawing from the Giro d’Italia Women, she returned to compete in the Tour de France Femmes but was once again forced to abandon before stage 7 due to a skin infection, capping off a challenging year.
In 2024, Longo Borghini decided to prioritize the Giro d'Italia, where she claimed the overall victory on home soil. Following her triumph, she competed at the Olympic Games and was considered a potential dark horse contender for the Tour de France.
The Lidl-Trek squad will line up for the Tour de France Femmes with Gaia Realini and Shirin van Anrooij as the designated general classification leaders. The team’s roster also includes Lucinda Brand, Amanda Spratt, Elisa Balsamo, Lizzie Deignan and Ellen van Dijk.
“Gaia and Shirin will both have the opportunity to see what they can do on the General Classification and we have some really strong support for them. Elisa will, naturally, be our leader for sprints while, Lucinda, Lizzie, Spratty, and Ellen bring a wealth of experience to our line-up,” Lidl-Trek sport director Jeroen Blijlevens said in a team statement.
“Overall, we have a really well-balanced team with a group of riders that all have the strength to win in different ways and everyone is excited about the challenge ahead.”
Balsamo will be looking for victory in the opening two stages but she will have to contend with sprinters Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike).
The 26-year-old Italian outpaced Kool at the Classic Brugge-De Panne, defeated Vos at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana earlier this spring, and outsped both Wiebes and Kool on the first stage of the 2023 Simac Ladies Tour.
Balsamo, Deignan, and Van Dijk all competed in the Olympic road race for their respective countries on August 4th, with Deignan achieving the highest finish among them, placing 12th. Van Dijk also participated in the Olympic time trial, where she secured 11th place.
Meanwhile, Brand, Spratt, Realini and Van Anrooij spent time at altitude camp in Andorra for a block of training before gathering in Rotterdam.
“We are coming into the Tour de France Femmes off the back of a huge win for the Team at the Giro d'Italia Women and I think that has given everyone a lot of confidence and motivation for the race ahead. Lidl-Trek always line-up at the start of a race with big goals and the ambition, as well as ability, to win. However, for the last two years, luck has not been on the Team's side and they have not got the results they maybe should have. We want that to change this year,” Blijlevens said.
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