Longo Borghini wins La Route de France

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It was a winning finale at La Route de France for Wiggle-Honda as Giorgia Bronzini won the stage 6 sprint in Guebwiller and her teammate Elisa Longo Borghini secured the overall title. Bronzini sprinted to the stage win, her second of the seven-stage tour, ahead of Loren Rowney (Australia) and Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur). 

“It was an amazing day,” Bronzini said. “I’m so happy to win again, and we also have the general with Elisa, so I think it was a good job from the team!"

Longo Borghini took over the race lead after winning stage 3 in Avallon and extended her lead after winning stage 5 on the mountain finish to La Planche des Belles Filles. She started the final stage, a 116.4km race from Soultzmatt to Guebwiller, with a 1:10 lead over Amber Neben (Bepink Laclassica) and 1:18 over Claudia Lichtenberg (Team Liv - Plantur), and the GC remained the same at the end of the race.

“I’m really happy to have won La Route de France,” Longo Borghini said. “It’s been real teamwork this week and I want to thank my teammates and the staff for this success. I came here for training and I’m going away with an overall victory! This gives me motivation and a boost for the rest of the season!”

The final stage of La Route de France was a challenging one. It brought the riders on a 116km race that included four laps of a 26km circuit, which included the climb of the Col de Bannstein.

"We started the race with obviously the main thing to defend the jersey," Bronzini said. "I did some work for Elisa to make sure she came to the climb every time at the front, and wasn’t in trouble in the downhill. Me and Mayuko [Hagiwara] were always next to her. Because Audrey [Cordon-Ragot] was not on a good day today, I asked Audrey to cover some moves on the flat parts of the lap, while Mayuko and me were more there for chasing, and on the climb.”

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