Women’s Tour cycling: Elisa Longo Borghini takes glory by single second

Elisa Longo Borghini claimed the Women’s Tour title by one second following a thrilling sprint finish in Oxford.

Grace Brown had gone into Saturday’s final stage as the leader by three seconds, but Italian Trek-Segafredo rider Longo Borghini’s sprint for the line saw her cross in third and earn a four-second time bonus over her Australian rival.

DSM’s Lorena Wiebes won the stage in front of Clara Copponi to claim her third victory of the week.

“We decided to go for the intermediate sprint and I was fourth so I was like: ‘OK, that’s the second place and that’s it,’” Borghini said. “But then all my teammates kept my morale up, and said: ‘We try at the finish and we’ll do the lead-out for you.’

“I was really doubting, but when you see such a team that is motivated and they are really believing in you, you just want to give them back everything.”

She added: “It’s nice to win an overall classification, this has not happened to me many times in my life. It’s only the third tour I have won – this one is up there as one that ranks high.”

Katarzyna Niewiadoma finished third overall, just five seconds behind Longo Borghini. The top British rider was CAMS-Baso’s Becky Storrie, who finished 15th overall.