'This is cycling, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose' - Longo Borghini reflects on shock worlds road race

Regarding the surprise outcome, Longo Borghini said after the road race to Eurosport, "Today the bravest and most clever one won."

The Italian rider took responsibility for tactical miscalculations that allowed a strong breakaway group to establish a decisive advantage, with the podium of the road race filled with riders who had taken that moment to escape up the road, those being Vallieres, Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) and Mavi García (Spain).

"I was standing behind the breakaway, controlling the other big riders and letting the breakaway go," she explained. "Instead of us big names controlling each other in a silly way, we lost the race."

Longo Borghini praised her teammates' efforts, who had controlled the race for the majority of the race, while expressing frustration with her own race management. She indicated she would "deeply reflect" on her race behaviour.

The experienced rider pinpointed the moment when victory slipped away from the favourites.

"When we were two laps to go and we were still looking at each other, I was talking to some of the riders saying, 'I wait for this rider because she looks strong.' I was like, 'OK, we lost the race,'" Longo Borghini recalled.

She sportingly credited the winner, Magdeleine Vallieres and other riders who had escaped for their superior race tactics and immense strength on the day.

"Sometimes it's not only the one that has the biggest power in general that wins. It's the most clever, the one that makes the right move," she said. "Vallieres and all the other riders that were at the front were the strongest today. So chapeau to them."

The brutally challenging course delivered an unexpected outcome that surprised many almost everybody, but Longo Borghini emphasised that this unpredictability is inherent to cycling.

"This is cycling. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose," she concluded.