Elisa Longo Borghini, excellent star in the Queens of the Alhambra criterium

The Italian Elisa Longo Borghini will be the great foreign star of the second edition of Queens of the Alhambra criteriumwhich will be held next Sunday October 20 on the Gran Vía of the Nasrid capital.

This season alone, the Lidl-Trek cyclist enriched his already long track record by winning the general of the Giro d’Italia, a second victory in the Tour of Flanders, a podium in La Vuelta Femenina of Carrefour.es or the bronze medal in the recent World Championships in Zurich 2024. Their presence will be the seal of great brilliance for the event organized by Relevo, a sports media outlet of the Vocento group, and sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalusia in collaboration with the Granada Provincial Council and the City Council of Granada.

“I am excited about this invitation to participate in the Reinas de la Alhambra”insisted Elisa Longo Borghini. “I look forward to wearing a bib in a place as beautiful as Granada. I have never visited the Alhambra and I have wanted to do it for a long time; this will be the perfect occasion. It is an honor for me to be part of an event like this, which celebrates and shows the growth of women’s cycling in Spain and around the world”.

Professional since 2011, Elisa Longo Borghini (1991, Ornavasso) is the leader of the mighty Lidl-Trek and one of the most respected and admired cyclists in the peloton. Not in vain, she lived, starred and developed the explosion of women’s cycling from the certainty of the last decade to the current brilliance, to the same extent as the Polish Katarzyna Niewiadoma or the South African Ashleigh Moolman, present in the inaugural edition. of the Queens of the Alhambra.

Five times Italian cross-country road champion and seven times in the time trial, it is his international record that identifies him as one of the great stars of the cycling world. Thanks to her climbing talent, she was able to succeed in some of the best stage tours in the Women’s WorldTour calendar, such as the Emirati UAE Tour, the British Women’s Tour or the Basque Emakumeen Bira. Equally powerful as a wheeler, his record includes such classics as the Tour of Flanders, the Alfredo Binda Trophy and the legendary Paris-Roubaix.

Then a 2023 marked by a series of health problems that culminated in septicemiaLongo Borghini had the best season of his life in 2024, with no less than 47 races finished in the top ten to rise to third place in the UCI Ranking. Of all his victories, a Giro d’Italia stands out where he led from start to finish, keeping world champion Lotte Kopecky at bay. Last Saturday, the leader of Lidl-Trek won the Giro dell’Emilia to end a season that will end with the Dutch Simac Ladies Tour… and his presence in the Reinas de la Alhambra.

In Queens of the Alhambra, will be part of Longo Borghini a platoon of 40 national and international cyclists to be measured in three sleeves. The last, a Grand Final among the ten best that emerged from the two preliminary tests: a Speed ​​​​​​​​contest where every three laps there will be a sprint whose winner will qualify for the Grand Final; and Elimination the last two cyclists at each step of the finish line will drop out of the competition until only five remain, who will earn their ticket to the Grand Final and play for victory in the sprint event. Final victory will be determined in a short and intense ‘scratch’ type test: the first to cross the finish line wins the crown.

Reinas de la Alhambra was born in 2023 to celebrate the growth of women’s cycling in Spain and in the world. On December 3, a representation of the international peloton gathered in the Gran Vía to compete in an exciting morning of competition in which Mavi García, the best cyclist in Spain, won in front of two stars of the massive international prestige like the Italian Letizia. Paternoster and South African Ashleigh Moolman.