On the flat criterium-like finish stage of the Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta, Trek-Segafredo's Elisa Longo Borghini made the race shine in Madrid on Sunday.

Attacking 46km from the line shortly after a break with teammate Ellen van Dijk had been caught, the Italian champion remained alone at the front of the race for 33km.

Longo Borghini and van Dijk were in second and third place overall after the second stage of the ITT, but neither of them are good at sprinting, so the overall leader Lisa Brennauer (Serratigit-WNT) and first stage winner Lorena Wiebes ( Team Sunweb) had to fight a 17-lap race with bonus sprints every other lap, a different tactic than the team of Lisa Brennauer (Serratigit-WNT), the overall leader, and Lorena Wiebes (Team Sunweb), the first stage winner.

"We were a small team, but very organized. We had a plan to attack and when we did we tried to gain as many seconds as possible. It's a shame we lost Letizia [Paternoster] in an early crash, but I really want to thank Ellen and Audrey [Cordón Lagotto] for doing a great job behind the peloton when I was leading," Longo Borghini said after the race. After the race, Longo Borghini said

"They covered all the attacks during the chase. It was a great race and we are happy with our performance and our second place in GC."

"We are very happy with our performance and our second place in GC.

Trek-Segafredo, with sport director Giorgia Bronzini, who won the stage from a breakaway in 2018, at the helm, decided to ride aggressively despite having only four riders, and only three in the race after Paternoster's fall.

On the first lap, van Dijk was seen talking to Annemiek van Fruten (Mitchelton-Scott) behind the peloton, and the two former time trial world champions launched an attack together, starting an eight-rider breakaway.

The Serratigit-WNT riders had their hands full trying to pull back this dangerous move, and when they succeeded, Longo Borghini fought back well and quickly gained a considerable gap. Longo Borghini, undeterred by the fact that he had no friends to share the work with, continued to attack boldly on his own.

Longo Borghini won the next three intermediate sprints, gaining a 15-second bonus. with an advantage of over 30 seconds, Longo Borghini became the de facto leader, putting pressure on the Serratisito WNT to bring her back in time or lose the red leader's jersey. The pressure was on.

After controlling the gap of just over 20 seconds over time, the blue-red team sent several riders to the front with three laps to go to close the gap to a few seconds.

Longoborghini was caught by the peloton with 13.1 km to go, but she was not done yet. And in the sprint finish, she was in 10th place, but Vives had to settle for second place on the stage after being passed by Elisa Balsamo (Valcar Travel & Service).

As a result, Longo Borghini's solo run was enough to defend her second place overall. On top of that, the weekend's results moved him up to second place in the 2020 UCI Women's World Tour rankings.