Elisa Balsamo was beaten only by solo winner Dominika Wlodarczyk at the Women's Cycling Grand Prix Stuttgart & Region
Less than 50 kilometres south of Lidl’s German headquarters, Elisa Balsamo claimed second place at the Women’s Cycling Grand Prix Stuttgart & Region in the small town of Tamm.
The former Road World Champion was comfortably the fastest in the sprint of a 13-rider chase group behind solo winner Dominika Wlodarczyk, at the end of an extremely aggressive race in Germany.
Wlodarczyk rode away from the shrinking main bunch on one of the numerous short but hard climbs of the 134-kilometre parcours, eventually winning with a 46-second advantage over Balsamo.
Lidl-Trek rode a very active race, featuring in many attacks and always being highly visible at the front of the main bunch with all of its riders.
In the finale, Fleur Moors and Loes Adegeest gave everything they had in an attempt to chase down Wlodarczyk, but they could no longer close the gap.
What Elisa said:
It was really a really hard race. We tried to be in every attack the whole day. Of course that was not easy, and then Wlodarczyk was really strong. We tried to close it, but at one point we realized it was not possible anymore. Then I did the best sprint possible and we are quite happy with the result. We went there to win, but in the end it is all good. I have to say: It was a really, really hard race!
