It was another magical day in Italy for the women's team, with Balsamo taking a third stage win at the Giro
Elisa Balsamo once again showed her strength, speed and grit on stage three of the Giro d’Italia Women. After sprinting to victory yesterday, the Italian rider wore the maglia rosa heading into today’s transitional, punchy stage to Buja. She knew it was going to be a tall order to defend pink and win again with the hard climbs that peppered the final 40-kilometres to the finish, but this is the Giro d’Italia, and Elisa Balsamo will give everything to this bike race.
With 20-kilometres to go on the third-category Montenars climb, the former world champion began to lose contact with the peloton, along with many other of the sprinters. Lidl-Trek had things covered at the pointy end of the race with climbers Bella Holmgren and Niamh Fisher-Black ensuring they came over the summit with a select group of GC riders. It looked, for a moment, like everything could be over for Balsamo, and that the pink jersey was steadily slipping out of her grasp.
Photo: Anouk Flesch
As she crested the climb, however, the 28-year-old fought hard to get back to the bunch. Fuelled by the chance of a third stage victory in her home race, wearing the pink jersey, Balsamo dug deep to make it. With under 10-kilometres remaining she was back in contention for victory. After taking some time to recover, the Italian rider began to move up and position herself for a reduced bunch finish.
In the final run-in to Buja, Balsamo gave a tactical masterclass surfing the wheels of her rivals as the road kicked up in the final 150 meters. She timed her kick to perfection when the finish line came into view, getting a gap on the other sprinters with just a few powerful pedal strokes. In the end, she had time to sit up and celebrate, taking another convincing win at the Giro d’Italia after a superb team performance. Balsamo will wear the pink jersey in tomorrow’s uphill time trial for the third day in a row.
Photo: Anouk Flesch
In the winner's words
Today was such a hard final. Once again, my team did an amazing job. They were pulling the whole day to close on the breakaway. In the final, Niamh and Bella, our GC leaders, were helping me and it was amazing.
I knew about this final because I did the recon, so I was ready, but I'm also a bit surprised and super happy. My big goal for today was trying to keep the pink jersey, and so I was fighting, I gave it my all. But this climb was so hard for me.
I still knew that it was a long wait till the end, so I really tried to fight to stay with a small group, and when we came back, it was perfect. Now, I just want to enjoy this jersey and tomorrow I will do my best.
