Women's Racing

Balsamo Makes It Four At The Giro Women, Surviving Crosswind Chaos And A Twisting Brescello Finale

CYCLING LOOKOUT • 4 JUNE 2026

Elisa Balsamo extended her remarkable opening week at the 2026 Giro d'Italia Women, powering to victory in Brescello on Stage 6 to claim her fourth stage win of the race. The Lidl-Trek sprinter came home ahead of Maggie Coles-Lyster and Georgia Baker after a flat day that briefly threatened to turn into something far more complicated.

The 159-kilometre run from Ala to Brescello had looked like a routine afternoon for the fast finishers, but the peloton never quite settled. An early four-rider Italian breakaway built an advantage of around four minutes before the bunch began to reel it back, and the real drama arrived when Uno-X suddenly lifted the pace and tore the field into several groups in the crosswind.

Race leader Anna van der Breggen made the front split, but pre-race favourite Demi Vollering and time-trial specialist Marlen Reusser were both caught out behind. The gaps never became decisive — UAE Team ADQ took up the chase at the front while Movistar drove the Reusser group back — but it was a reminder that no day at this Giro has been straightforward.

Once the bunch reformed, Balsamo took maximum points and six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, tightening her grip on the maglia ciclamino before the run-in. A late solo dig from Giorgia Serena opened a gap of around a minute with 12 kilometres remaining, but the sprint trains organised quickly and swept her up before the technical approach into town.

That finale had been flagged as awkward, with four corners packed into the final kilometre. Movistar briefly turned the wrong way after a right-hand bend, but Balsamo stayed glued to fifth wheel before her last lead-out rider, Lucinda Brand, produced a long, committed pull through the twisting closing metres. When the Italian opened her sprint there was no contest, and she crossed the line with clear authority while several riders tangled behind her.

It is the third win Balsamo has taken on the road after Stages 2 and 3, with her tally also boosted by the Stage 1 victory she inherited following Lorena Wiebes's controversial expulsion in Ravenna. The 28-year-old has been the dominant sprinter of the race from the opening weekend, and her consistency has turned the points classification into a procession.

Van der Breggen rolled home safely in the bunch to retain the Maglia Rosa, her lead built on a stunning Stage 4 uphill time trial in Nevegal and protected through the Stage 5 queen stage in the Dolomites. With the sprinters' chances now exhausted, attention swings to the decisive final weekend, where the summit finishes at Sestriere and the closing day around Saluzzo will settle the overall battle between Van der Breggen and Vollering.

Balsamo Makes It Four At The Giro Women, Surviving Crosswind Chaos And A Twisting Brescello Finale

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