Greig Leach

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) was continually dropping off the pace on the cobblestones, and then catching back on when she hit the smooth roads of northern France. The Italian Champion was in a tough place, she was trying to hold the wheel of Marianne Vos (Lotto-Jumbo), but couldn’t chase down her teammate who was up the road. On the other side of the coin, she was holding off the group of chasers she had left behind on the previous stretch of smooth macadam. Both she and Vos were on the hardest section of pave yet, the Carrefour de l’Arbre, so her slowing a bit can be forgiven. Spoiler alert, not only was she third on the road, she was third at the line on the Roubaix Velodrome.