Last year’s late attacker Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) is returning to Milan-San Remo Women with fiery motivation and expectations of an even more attacking race.
Only run for the first time in 2025, Milan-San Remo remains something of an unknown for the women’s peloton, with no set notions of where attacks can go or what kind of riders can win.
Last spring’s race was aggressive over the Poggio, but ultimately culminated in a sprint after a solo move from Longo Borghini was shut down on the final kilometre run-in to Via Roma, with Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) sprinting to victory from a reduced bunch.
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With a year’s experience in the legs, the murmurs around the run-up to Saturday’s race are all saying one thing: that the attacks will kick off earlier this year, likely on the Cipressa, which is longer and harder than the Poggio, and therefore more favourable for the climbers.
For that harder scenario, Longo Borghini will surely be amongst the very top favourites to light the race up and potentially go for the win, given her combination of powerful climbing and tactical aggression.
“I think it could be a different and even more unpredictable San Remo,” she told Tuttobiciweb this week.
“Recently, women’s races have been heating up earlier and earlier, and I don’t rule out the possibility that the race could explode on the Cipressa. There could be some girls who, having already tried it last year, get the courage to go for it, but it’s really hard to predict what will happen.”
Despite the unpredictability, the Italian was clear on one prognosis: “Be ready, because I’ll fight dearly.”
Longo Borghini started her season at the UAE Tour, which she won for a third time, and then took fourth at Strade Bianche before winning the midweek Trofeo Oro in Euro.
At Trofeo Alfredo Binda, she finished 16th in the group behind the winning group where her teammate Karlijn Swinkels took victory, so although she wasn’t contending for the win – for good reason – she takes good signs from her Italian block running into San Remo.
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“I feel good and I think I’m quite competitive,” she said. “I saw excellent signs especially at the Strade Bianche, while in Cittiglio I worked for the team, also because making a difference on climbs was very difficult. The Trofeo Binda is a beautiful race and is now becoming a key race ahead of San Remo. Personally, it was also a kind of training, testing myself with violent accelerations of two to five minutes.”
Perhaps the most threatening element of Longo Borghini’s return to San Remo, however, is her team. One DS told Cyclingnews this week that they expect UAE Team ADQ to be the team to beat on Saturday, and predicted that they will be the ones to kick things off on the Cipressa.
Since Longo Borghini’s arrival in 2025, the team strengthened again in 2026, but their key asset seems to be their teamwork, uniting behind a goal to often impressive results. With team unity seemingly a key aspect of the Classics so far, this could prove vital if they want to make Saturday’s finale as hard as possible.
“It’s a close-knit group, and when we do something, we give 100% to help each other,” Longo Borghini said of her team. “For San Remo, I’m not the only card to play, and I really like that. Besides me, there are many alternatives on the team, starting with Eleonora Gasparrini and Silvia Persico, who are proving to be really strong.
“Everyone is ready to help me and I’m ready to help them. Recently, in women’s cycling, the team always makes the difference and I think that will certainly be the case at San Remo too.”
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