The Elite women's category takes center stage at the European Cycling Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Italy arrives at the start line with great ambitions. The entire Italian National team will rally around Elisa Longo Borghini, fresh from her bronze medal at the recent Montreal World Championships and determined to launch an assault on the European champion's jersey.

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The Piedmont champion represents the jewel in the crown of a solid and competitive squad, built to support her in the decisive moments of the race and allow her to play her cards in the fight for continental gold. Alongside the Verbania native will be Francesca Barale, Letizia Borghesi, Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini, Gaia Masetti, Soraya Paladin, Silvia Persico and Debora Silvestri, a group of experienced and reliable athletes tasked with managing the various phases of the race and protecting their leader from attacks by rivals.

On the international front, the main obstacle for the Italian team will be represented by the usual, extremely strong Netherlands, which will line up at the start with a squad of absolute caliber led by newly crowned world champion and defending European champion Demi Vollering. Alongside her will be other world-class riders such as Puck Pieterse, Lorena Wiebes and Femke De Vries, a quartet capable of interpreting the race in every situation.

In the expected duel between Italy and the Netherlands, several high-level nations will attempt to insert themselves. France will rely on the qualities of Juliette Berthet and Cedrine Kerbaol, while Poland will entrust its ambitions to Kasia Niewiadoma, fresh from the silver medal won at the recent Montreal World Championships.

Among the possible protagonists are also Spanish rider Paula Blasi, Swiss riders Marlen Reusser and Noemi Ruegg, German riders Franziska Koch and Liane Lippert, Hungarian rider Kata Blanka Vas and Luxembourg's Marie Schreiber.

The Elite women's road race will be held over a total distance of 130 kilometers, divided into an initial flat section of 86 kilometers followed by two laps of the final circuit of 22 kilometers each. A total of 88 riders representing 26 nations will line up at the start.

THE STARTERS

Netherlands
1 VOLLERING Demi
2 KRAAK Amber
3 MARKUS Riejanne
4 NOOIJEN Lieke
5 PIETERSE Puck
6 SWINKELS Karlijn
7 DE VRIES Femke
8 WIEBES Lorena

Italy
9 BARALE Francesca
10 BORGHESI Letizia
11 GASPARRINI Eleonora Camilla
12 LONGO BORGHINI Elisa
13 MASETTI Gaia
14 PALADIN Soraya
15 PERSICO Silvia
16 SILVESTRI Debora

Poland
17 JASKULSKA Marta
18 KRZESLAK Natalia
19 LACH Marta
20 NIEWIADOMA-PHINNEY Katarzyna Anna
21 PEREKITKO Karolina
22 PŁOSAJ Nikol
23 SKALNIAK-SOJKA Agnieszka
24 WLODARCZYK Dominika

Spain
25 BLASI CAIROL Paula
26 GARCIA CAÑELLAS Margarita Victoria
27 GONZALEZ BLANCO Alicia
28 MARTIN MARTIN Sara
29 OSTOLAZA ZABALA Usoa

Switzerland
30 CALUORI Ginia
31 FUCHS Lea
32 HÄBERLIN Steffi
33 REUSSER Marlen
34 RÜEGG Noemi
35 STERN Léa
36 STIASNY Petra

France
37 BERTHET Juliette
38 CURINIER Léa
39 KERBAOL Cedrine
40 LE MOUEL Celia
41 LE NET Marie
42 MORIER Emilie
43 MUZIC Evita
44 SQUIBAN Maeva

Germany
45 BAUERNFEIND Ricarda
46 KOCH Franziska
47 LIPPERT Liane
48 NIEDERMAIER Antonia
49 RIEDMANN Linda

Belgium
50 CLAES Lotte
51 DE KEERSMAEKER Audrey
52 TAS Sandrine
53 TRUYEN Marthe
54 VANPACHTENBEKE Margot

Norway
55 JØRGENSEN Tiril

Austria
56 GSCHWENTNER Leila
57 SADNIK Katharina
58 SCHREMPF Carina
59 SCHWEINBERGER Kathrin

Sweden
60 BORGSTRÖM Julia

Slovenia
61 BOBNAR Nika
62 KERN Špela
63 SUŠNIK Tjaša

Denmark
64 ANDERSON Solbjørk
65 LORENZEN Christina
66 LUDWIG Cecilie

Luxembourg
67 BERTON Nina
68 SCHREIBER Marie

Ukraine
69 ALTUKHOVA Maryna
70 BIRIUKOVA Yuliia
71 KONONENKO Valeriia
72 KULYNYCH Olha

Czechia
73 BURLOVÁ Kristýna

Hungary
74 VAS Blanka
75 ZSANKÓ Petra

Greece
76 FASOI Varvara
77 GIACHOU Eleftheria

Lithuania
78 GEDRAITYTĖ Akvile
79 LELEIVYTĖ Rasa

Cyprus
80 CHRISTOFOROU Antri

Portugal
81 QUEIRÓS Raquel
82 ROXO Beatriz

Iceland
83 GUNNARSDÓTTIR Briet Kristý

Bulgaria
84 STOYANOVA Gergana

Belarus
85 ABRAMENKA Alina
86 AMIALIUSIK Alena

North Macedonia
87 PETROVA Elena

Albania
88 GRECO Myral