Elisa Longo Borghini couldn't believe what she had done: COVID-19 positive for the first two weeks of March, on the mend for the remaining two, she entered the Tour de Flanders without expectations and made the podium.

"I never thought this would happen," she said. It's really emotional."

Longo Borghini became ill in early March and was forced to miss her home spring classics, Strade Bianche and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, after being diagnosed with COVID-19. she did not test negative until 15 days later and spent the next few weeks "without intensity." She continued riding. Because of this, she considered her campaign for the Cobblestone Classic cancelled.

However, after a glimmer of hope in mid-week with an 11th place finish in the Dwar door Hlaanderen, Longo Borghini rallied in Flanders, finishing second in a group sprint behind lone winner Lotte Kopecký (SD Walks) for the last spot on the podium.

"I want to thank everyone on the team for having faith in me," said Kopecky.

"At the end of the day, if the others believed in me, I knew I could make it to the podium.

Longo Borghini was asked at what point he began to feel that today might be a good day, to which he replied, "I felt really bad all day."

Until the last few kilometers, she had spent the day working for her younger teammate, Shirin van Unrooy, when suddenly she was in the chase group on the run-in to Oudenaarde.

"When the big split happened after Koppenberg, I told Shirin she was the leader. I then made a big effort to get the breakaway group back together.

"Ina Twittenberg said to me, 'OK, Longo Borghini, sprint. But if she's telling me to sprint, I believe I have all the faith in the team and I have to get this job done as best I can."

"Shirin kept the pace and put me in the best position for the sprint. I just ran the 150 meters to get to the podium. And it came to fruition."

Longo Borghini doesn't have much of a sprint pedigree, but he has clearly sharpened up, thanks in part to training sessions with Trek-Segafredo partner Jacopo Mosca.

"It feels really strange to be expected to sprint by my teammates. It was rewarding to sprint for Jacopo and the city billboards."

With less than a week to go until Paris-Roubaix, defending champion Longo Borghini vowed not to get carried away by this unexpected turn of events, but to enjoy the moment.

However, she did let out a sort of yelp in the face of another SD Walks dominance. The Dutch team dominated the spring, while the others looked listless, but Longo Borghini at least showed some fighting spirit.

"At some point, you don't have to constantly think about the SD Wolks that are around.

"I've been watching a lot of TV lately, and every time they get in front, the whole peloton is like, 'Okay, SD Walks is in front. We're going to race ourselves. We don't have to worry about them being behind us in the second peloton.'

"Trek Segafredo has a lot of potential and can win bike races," she concluded.