Giro d’Italia Women: Maglia rosa Elisa Balsamo speeds to second win in a row in stage 2 bunch sprint

Elisa Balsamo lines up in the maglia rosa (Image credit: Getty Images)

Eleonora La Bella (Aromitalia Vaiano) and the Top Girls Fassa Bortolo duo of Elisa De Vallier and Sara Luccon attacked early on the 156-kilometre stage to form the break of the day. Giorgia Serena (Mendelspeck E-Work), Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink), and Josie Nelson (Picnic PostNL) formed a chase group but never made it to the front trio and were instead caught on the day’s only climb, the Muro di Ca’ del Poggio after 66km.

The front group had been more than six minutes ahead of the peloton an hour into the stage, but this had been reduced to around two minutes by the time they reached the climb. La Bella was first over the top and will wear the maglia azzurra, the blue mountain jersey, on stage 3.

What to read next

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Turning southeast after the hilly mid-section of the stage, the peloton allowed the escapees to get up to 2:25 minutes ahead again before taking up the chase at the 30km mark. With Lidl-Trek and Movistar doing most of the work, the gap was quickly reduced, and the break was caught 14km from the line.

On the run-in to Caorle, the sprint trains jostled for position. Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) brought her team to the front just before a roundabout with 3.8km to go and then pulled the peloton for over two kilometres before swinging off 1.6km from the line.

Balsamo had been further back in the pack but was now brought to the front by Brand who led the peloton onto the final kilometre. UAE Team ADQ’s Silvia Persico and Eleonora Gasparrini brought the race onto the finishing straight. Gillespie and Balsamo backed off a bit, letting Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) take Persico’s wheel.

When the latter swung off inside the 400-metre mark, Margaux Vigié (Visma-Lease a Bike) started her lead-out, with Sierra and Consonni jumping on her wheel. From 8th position, Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) started a long sprint, but Gillespie launched off Vigié almost at the same time.

Balsamo came out of Gillespie’s slipstream at the 200-metre mark, and as Kool faded, the Italian pushed into the lead with 80 metres to go to win. Gillespie beat Consonni to second place in a photo-finish.