'When you have the best leadout in the world, it’s just easy' – Elisa Balsamo sprints to fourth victory on Giro d'Italia Women stage 6 after crosswinds cause panic
Lidl-Trek's Italian firmly in control of points competition after another win
Elisa Balsamo powered to her fourth sprint victory in four opportunities at the Giro d'Italia Women on stage six, comprehensively beating her rivals.
The Italian Lidl-Trek rider was launched by Lucinda Brand in Brescello, and comfortably won ahead of Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health) and Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco).
On a flat, long day in the north of Italy, there was brief general classification action after crosswinds split the race up, but the peloton eventually came back together to set-up a sprint finish.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) maintained her one minute lead over Demi Vollering, with three stages still to be raced.
Balsamo, in the red jersey of points classification leader, was always the favourite for her fourth victory of the nine-stage race, but her team still had to get the job done. After they controlled the run-in, with some technical corners, Coles-Lyster opened the sprint, before Balsamo rounded her comfortably with 50m to go. It was another another triumph on home soil for the Italian, her fifth Giro stage win.
"When you have the best leadout in the world, it’s just easy," Balsamo said on TV post-victory. "It’s never easy, but with Lucinda, everything is much easier because I don’t have to fight for position. I just need to trust her, and I know she's the best one. It’s more on her than on me, honestly.
"A lot of sprinters thought it was a good opportunity today, so I could see a lot of full leadouts in the last kilometres. Me, Fleur [Moors] and Lucinda were just jumping, and I think we found the perfect point behind Fenix. This morning on the bus we said we wanted to take the corner at 1.3km to go in front, I don’t care about being in second position because I just want to be safe. Lucinda was just so strong, she brought me until 200m to go so it was perfect."
She appears to have the red points jersey sewn up, but as she pointed out, she still needs to finish the race: "It’s never easy, I need to arrive at Sestriere first. Yesterday we also did the intermediate sprint because we really want this jersey. So, now it’s not going to be easy but I think we’re in a really good position."
After relative calm for the first half of this lengthy stage, pressure on the front from Uno-X Mobility through a small town, with aid from crosswinds, caused chaos in the peloton.
Initially, Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) was caught out, as pink jersey Van der Breggen made it into the front group. This split was undone, but GC hopefuls including Marlen Reusser (Movistar) remained distanced. A furious chase brought the peloton back together, but nerves were frayed.
There was more general classification action at the intermediate sprint, where Vollering sought to steal back a few bonus seconds over Van der Breggen, although it ultimately came to nothing, with Balsamo notching up more points ahead of Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) and Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike).
With 21km to go, Giorgia Serena (Team Mendelspeck E-Work) launched a move off the front, which lasted for 12km, before she was swept up with 9.1km to go.
With just over a kilometre to go, a small crash on a roundabout saw riders including Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech) hit the ground, and seemed to disrupt the leadout for her team's sprinter, Charlotte Kool. Movistar were also taken out of the reckoning as a result of this incident.
Lidl-Trek were at the front of the race however, and used their positioning to their benefit, which resulted in Balsamo winning again.
RESULTS
Giro d’Italia Women stage six: Ala > Brescello (160km)
1. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek, in 3:54:02
2. Maggie Coles-Lyster (Can) Human Powered Health
3. Georgia Baker (Aus) Liv AlUla Jayco
4. Célia Gery (Fra) FDJ United-Suez
5. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Canyon-SRAM
6. Gladys Verhulst-Wild (Fra) AG Insurance-Soudal
7. Lara Gillespie (Ire) UAE Team ADQ
8. Lily Williams (USA) Human Powered Health
9. Alessia Zambelli (Ita) Top Girls Fassa Bortolo
10. Alexandra Volstad (Can) EF Education-Oatly, all at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE three
1. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx–Protime, in 19:49:15
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United–Suez, +1:00
3. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, +1:24
4. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl-Trek, +2:01
5. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, +2:03
6. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE ADQ, +2:12
7. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, +2:33
8. Femke de Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:38
9. Monica Trinca Colonel (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, +3:21
10. Urška Žigart (Slo) AG Insurance-Soudal, +3:26
