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Cycling - 23. February 2018.

Elisa Longo Borghini: “I Hope To Be Useful For My Team” In Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Elisa Longo Borghini will start her 2018 road campaign in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The 26-year-old Italian Champion lit up last year’s edition of the Belgian season-opener as part of a two-rider break that escaped after the climb of the mythical Paterberg. She finished the race in fifth but felt satisfied that her condition was perfect for her upcoming targets, and duly won the Strade Bianche the following weekend.

“I’m feeling fine,” Longo Borghini said. “My shape is not yet super so I’m using this race as training. I hope the team can be good because we have a strong one. I don’t think I would like to be the leader on Saturday because for sure I’m not in the shape for winning this race. I hope to be useful for my team, rather than win the race myself.”

Rather than aiming specifically at the early-season races of Flanders and Italy, Longo Borghini’s spring will be built around reaching her optimum condition in time for the three “Ardennes Classics” of the Amstel Gold Race, la Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

“The main goal is that one and I will try to be at my best for the middle of April,” she confirmed. “I’m trying to find my good legs here.”

Although she will not be approaching the Flemish Classics at the top of her condition, Longo Borghini’s style will inevitably mean that she will spend much of her time at the front of races. In her new full-tricolore Italian Champion’s jersey she is sure to stand out, as so many Italian Champions have done in the Northern Classics of the past.

“I think my tricolore is beautiful this year,” she smiled. “Champion System made a good thing and I will be proud to wear it until June. I will try to show it as much as I can in the races.

“I will try. You never know!”

Having spent a quiet winter training Longo Borghini has managed to avoid illness and injury over the closed season and begins her first race of the year looking to build her condition throughout the Classics of the spring.

“I’m healthy,” she confirmed. “That’s the most important thing because last year I was a bit plagued by flu and colds. Right now I’m feeling fine. I had a nice training camp in Gran Canaria and my winter has been pretty relaxed; not many hours in the beginning, and now I’m just building up a bit.”

Longo Borghini will be joined in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad by close friend Audrey Cordon-Ragot, who spent much of her winter building her condition in cyclocross before captaining the Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team in its Australia campaign in January. The French Time Trial Champion took fourth in the gruelling Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, and will be looking to build on the confidence of that result.

Austrian Champion Martina Ritter will make her debut for the black and orange team on Saturday, alongside former Danish Champion Julie Leth, with the team completed by British sisters Grace and Lucy Garner.

The same team will start Sunday’s Omloop van het Hageland, with the exception of Longo Borghini, who will return to Italy to prepare for her Strade Bianche defence. She will be replaced by another member of the black and orange Australia squad in the shape of Japanese Champion Eri Yonamine, who will make her European debut for Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling.

Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Audrey Cordon-Ragot
 (France), Grace Garner (Great Britain), Lucy Garner (Great Britain), Julie Leth(Denmark), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Martina Ritter (Austria)

Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team for Omloop van het Hageland
Audrey Cordon-Ragot
 (France), Grace Garner (Great Britain), Lucy Garner (Great Britain), Julie Leth(Denmark), Martina Ritter (Austria), Eri Yonamine (Japan)

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