BALSAMO CLAIMS THIRD CONSECUTIVE VICTORY IN PUNCHY SPRINT FINALE
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to victory on Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia Women to claim her third consecutive win of the race to increase her lead in the maglia rosa to 24 seconds ahead of Tuesday’s brutal time-trial.
It was nearly not to be for the Italian sprinter when she was dropped on the final categorised climb of Montenars (cat. 3) with around 22km to go before everything would come back together with 15km to the finish.
An unpredictable stage on paper, the day’s breakaway formed quickly with around 146km to go, with Canada national champion Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) joined by Eleonora Deotto (Team Mendelspeck E-Work), Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime), Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Marta Pavesi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo).
The breakaway were allowed to grow their advantage to around three minutes, collecting maximum points on the cat. 4 climb before they were eventually caught with 25.8km to go.
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An increase of pace as the peloton hit the bottom of the final climb of the day saw the GC riders move to the front and out of danger, but it was Celia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) who took to the front to brutally split up the peloton – leaving only a select group at the head of the race and seeing the maglia rosa Balsamo dropped.
With just under 22km to go, European champion Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) hit the front of the race and attacked, with defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) and Marlen Reusser (Movistar) among the nine riders to follow.
The select group’s advantage grew to nearly a minute on the descent, but a lack of cohesion saw things come back together with 15km to go.
Multiple attacks from the bunch failed to stick before Uno-X Mobility’s Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset managed to attack and open a small gap. She would hit the final kilometre solo, but a punchy uphill finish would see her absorbed by the peloton, with Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) launching her sprint with 300m to go.
Quickly following behind, Balsamo bridged across to Williams, passing her with 125m to go to comfortably claim her third victory of the race, pipping Williams in second and Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) in third.
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