Montreal Cycling World Championships: Vollering wins, Longo Borghini bronze

Prediction respected in the elite women's road race at the cycling world championships in Montreal, with the victory of the heavy favorite, the Dutch Demi Vollering, but Italy can rejoice again for the exploit of Elisa Longo Borghini. The veteran of the Italian expedition, at 34 years old and in her 28th career participation in a world championship event, climbed onto the podium, winning a precious bronze medal. And her eighth in a world championship, the first dates back to 2012, and comes a few days after her first gold, the one she won with the Italian team in the mixed relay and which made her move. For Italy, the haul of medals thus rises to five (one gold, three silvers and two bronzes), on the eve of the men's road race which closes the competition.

The Piedmontese champion was considered one of the most credible rivals of the Dutch - together with Kasia Niewiadoma who in fact won the silver medal - and until the end she tried to get the coup, with a lunge at the end which was however repelled by Voellering and the Pole, who overtook her and challenged each other in the final sprint won by the former.

Longo Borghini reached the finish line with a delay of 4'', managing to keep the Swiss Marlen Reusser behind her. Vollering, in her first world title, crowned an almost perfect season, which has already seen her win the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Flanders and the Freccia Wallone.

Tomorrow the men's race, over a distance of 273 kilometres, offers a more open prediction, given the absence of Tadej Pogacar, with Remco Evenepoel still considered the Slovenian's possible success on the world championship throne. Italy places its hopes above all in the team captain, Giulio Ciccone.

A curiosity: Slovakia found itself without runners at the start, due to injuries and other impediments of those who were registered, so in order not to lose points in the national rankings, the UCI will still start an athlete, the team masseur, a 28-year-old with a past as a cyclist.