Finding success is hard, even for the best of us, but repeating that success can be a much tougher task. Although she joked in a team press release earlier this month that she'd like to nab fewer fourth places, Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) says she would jump at the opportunity to enjoy another year like 2016.
Last year, Longo Borghini claimed an Olympic medal, third at the European Championships, the Italian national time trial title, the mountains classification at the Giro Rosa and victory at the Giro dell'Emilia. There were a few close calls elsewhere – such as two second places at the Giro – that could have been more, but it was not a year to be sniffed at by anyone's standards.
"I would sign right now if they told me that I would have another season like that," the 25-year-old told Cyclingnews during a rest day at a self-organised training camp in Gran Canaria.
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The result that sticks out for Longo Borghini more than any other was the bronze she took in Rio, following a dramatic race in blustery conditions.
"If I'm thinking about it, I'm still getting a bit emotional because it's something that you dream of when you are a child, and you don't really understand what you are going to do until you do I," she said. "Trying to describe the Olympics, I think it's impossible. You need to live them and feel them to understand what they are."
The Olympic Games can often be given second billing in the world of cycling but, with the competition only taking place every four years, making your country's selection is an honour for any athlete. For Longo Borghini, whose brother Paolo was also a professional cyclist, going to the Olympics was an opportunity to follow in her parent's footsteps. Her mother Guidina Dal Sasso was a cross country skier who competed in three Winter Olympic Games. Her father went to five Olympics, not as an athlete but a technician with the Italian team.
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