The seconds that count

Silvia Persico: “Elisa Longo Borghini fights for her teammates on and off the bike” (III/V)

Some experiences are transformative because they offer us the first taste of what we want in life. Some are the opposite, helping us realise what we prefer to stay away from. Silvia Persico holds dear memories of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. “It was one of my best performances as a professional rider. I was playing for the win in many stages, getting defeated by my childhood idol Marianne Vos in one of those, and then I finished 5th overall.” Yet the Italian rider is not meant to nor interested in pursuing a similar string of results in the coming years. “As things stand, I don’t want to target the general classification of a grand tour ever again. It’s too stressful, both physically and mentally.” The pressure on her shoulders after such a breakthrough performance was too heavy. Nowadays, she feels much more at ease working for other riders in the biggest races. “I’ve always been a winner, and will always be,” Persico warns, “but these last couple of years I have switched to a different role, and I enjoy it.” Especially when that role involves supporting one of the defining figures of women's cycling: Elisa Longo Borghini.

From disquiet to comfort: “When I heard Elisa was coming, I was very happy, and a little worried”
Persico had been the leader of the thriving UAE Team ADQ for 18 months, mixing consistent performances with underwhelming ones, when the Emirati squad decided to recruit a new, bona fide spearhead in Elisa Longo Borghini with the aim of stepping up in 2025. A marquee name on the international stage for more than a decade with a long, prestigious palmarès, Longo Borghini is “the guiding light for every Italian rider,” in Persico’s own words.  
“When I was first told that Elisa was coming to the team, I thought it was just a rumor,” recalls the all-rounder from Alzano Lombardo. “Later on, Elisa and I had a training camp together ahead of the Paris Olympics, and she told me it was true. It was a surprise for me.” Things were about to change for a team on the rise that was failing to meet the sky-high standards set by their male counterparts of UAE Team Emirates, a dominating force in men’s cycling.  
“I was very happy, and a little worried,” Persico admits. “I knew her a little bit, and we had got along well when racing for the Italian national team, but we hadn’t met in depth and she was… Scary, you know? We hadn’t talked a lot to each other and, off the bike, she seemed a bit closed off from the outside world. As though she was too serious to fit in an environment where we spent the best part of the time joking with each other.”  
Our worst fears lie in anticipation, and time proved Silvia’s concerns unfounded. “Right now, she chats, jokes and laughs as much as everyone else in the team.” They have clicked, both on a personal and on a sporting level. “Right now, we sometimes understand each other without even saying a word.”

A guardian and a mentor for her teammates: “She tutors all of us”
In Longo Borghini, Persico has found a person with “an impressive work ethic” who is always trying “to go well beyond her limits, both racing and training.” Passion is perhaps her defining trait as a rider: “She loves cycling so much, and this spurs her to do her best every day.” That is why the Italian legend has been able to win races as different, and challenging, as the Giro d’Italia and Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France, showcasing her grit and strength in impressive ways. This class translates to the human side.
“Elisa tutors all of us in the team,” says Persico. “It’s uncommon to come across a leader like her, who takes care of everybody and fights for her teammates in every way, on and off the bike.”
This is an often unseen yet equally relevant quality in a leader: the ability to become a guardian for her teammates, to shield them from every woe and become a human lightning rod, to create a safe space around her. “Elisa handles external expectations super well. Sometimes, we don’t even notice when she is under pressure.”  
Finding the shelter of Longo Borghini is a blessing for Persico. “In our first race together, the 2025 UAE Tour, I was very happy when the DSs told me to pull for her. I had never worked for such a strong rider, and it enabled me not to feel the same pressure I had endured in the previous years.” They were first and second across the finish line in the queen stage, and subsequently in the overall standings, too.

The Giro they won, the Tour they want to win: “Every teammate is instrumental for the leader to win”
Over the last season and a half, Persico and Longo Borghini have shared 49 racing days and claimed 12 victories - one by the former, eleven by the latter. “I feel I’ve played a meaningful part in some of Elisa’s victories,” says our interviewee. “Sometimes I’m the last support rider, and therefore I get more screen time than my teammates… but every cyclist in the team is instrumental for the leader to finish things off and win the race. And, ultimately, the rider who deserves the most credit is the one who actually claims the victory.”  
None of the wins they have achieved together is as valuable as the 2025 Giro d’Italia, landed after an impressive two-up breakaway in the second-to-last stage. Longo Borghini was 16” in arrears of pink jersey Marlen Reusser when Persico and her hit the front of the favorites group on a descent ahead of the final climb to Monte Nerone.  
“That attack was far from planned, but it worked out quite well,” recalls Persico. “The DSs told us to lead the descent, and I’m one who enjoys going fast downhill. We created a gap and then the team car told us to slow down and wait for the bunch, yet Elisa insisted that we keep going and we decided to go all in.” After an exciting, one-hour long effort, Longo Borghini managed to take the GC lead, and then sealed the overall win the following day. “But I believe nonetheless that we actually won that Giro in a flat stage on which we created some echelons and distanced many climbers,” underlines Persico.  
After a gutsy, successful performance earlier this month in the Giro, Elisa Longo Borghini heads into the upcoming Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as one of the main favorites. Alongside her, UAE Team ADQ will line up Paula Blasi, the biggest sensation of the season after her triumph in La Vuelta Femenina 26 by Carrefour.es, and a cohort of support riders featuring Persico. “I’ll be on domestique duty, although the team may grant me some chance to play my own cards over the week. Most days, though, I will be working for Elisa and the other leaders in the team.” Together, they may achieve the Yellow Jersey their team is longing for.