CITTIGLIO – When we realized it would end in a sprint between Balsamo and Kopecky, and not just out of partisanship, we started rubbing our hands. The arrival of Trofeo Binda It's treacherous and not at all trivial: before taking your measure, you have to get it wrong at least onceElisa Balsamo knows it like the back of her hand, but for the world champion it was the first time.
When the Piedmontese stopped, she was shaken by an emotion as deep as the adrenaline rush of sprinting. And when her partner Shirin Van Anrooij arrived next door, first last yearThe two hugged to celebrate the success of their plan (opening photo). Lidl-Trek had assigned the Dutchwoman the task of supervising the climbers and the Piedmontese the task of leading the sprint.
«This is a sprint that I particularly like – explains Balsamo – because It's a bit of a climb and I've now realised that you shouldn't start too long, otherwise your legs will fall apart. I knew Kopecky was the fastest in the group, so I decided to take her wheel and it was the right decision. Our strong point, today as always, is the team. So we may not have the strongest individual, but we always run as a group to try to be the strongest team."
«Shirin – continues Balsamo – had to cover the attacks of the strongest climbers and so it was. When we saw that At the top of the last climb there was only a small group left, she made herself available to me and for this I thank her infinitely. We're a great, close-knit team and we don't even think twice about making ourselves available to our teammates. In my opinion, this makes the difference in cycling, but the last climb was really painful…».
Hooked by a hair
Elisa is a sprinter, but she holds her own on steep climbs and medium climbs. However, when the climbers are the ones setting the pace, to stay hooked she needs to grit her teeth hardAnd today too, on the final pass on the Orino climb, she reached the summit with only a hair's breadth of energy.
«I didn't want to give up – he explains – because I knew that If I had managed to get to the top with the group, then I would have had a good chance of making the podiumThere weren't many fast athletes left and then, somehow, when a sprinter smells the arrival, he is reborn (smiles, ed.)I knew it would be the most difficult point for me. I always care about this race, so I started with energy. But I knew it would be tough, and in the end it was extremely selective, and many of the riders were lacking in strength."
The athlete found again
The start of the season saw her win twice at the Vuelta Valenciana, as well as in 2022, when the stage was one, but still came Cittiglio's victory with the rainbow jersey. In the meantime, girls' cycling has changed a lotLotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes have become the threat of every race, and winning is no longer just about having a good sprint. Everything has become a whole lot more difficult.
“I think I’ve improved too,” she says. “I’m training harder and harder. Women's cycling's cycling is growing exponentially, so if a person doesn't improve, the results won't come.I'm giving it my all and getting good results is definitely encouraging. It's an extremely competitive group, so you absolutely have to arrive at the races at 110 percent of your physical condition, Otherwise, there's no chance of taking home a podium finish. And this is a big difference compared to the past."
Flashes of blue
The Binda Trophy was also the race of the return to racing Martha Cavalli, after the last injuryThe Piedmontese is now expected to spend three weeks at altitude, during which she will begin to rebuild her condition for the summer challenges. It was the race that saw among the ten also Soraya Paladin and Silvia Persian: a beautiful group of blues who did not escape the gaze of coach Sangalli, present in Cittiglio.
"We've rediscovered an athlete like Balsamo," he explains, "who's worked hard and is finally able to give her best. And it has been shown that with a strong team you can also put Kopecky in difficulty.This is a treacherous arrival, you see it there and it never arrives. And if you anticipate it, you're done for. Last year's insecure Balsamo was daughter of the accident And in this cycling world, if you're less than 100 percent, you don't win. We've rediscovered the champion we've been missing.
«Similarly, I saw a great Soraya Paladin, who ran well on the counterattack. And Silvia Persico also did well, she paid a little the different winter without cyclocrossHe's now getting into the right shape, as we all wanted, because this year we can't get there long, given the summer that awaits us. I'm also happy to have seen the return of Marta Cavalli, who did well to come here todayShe stayed with the leaders until the end, then it's normal that she lacked race pace. In short, I'm going home happy, also because I saw Malcotti, Quagliotto, and Barale ahead. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Paris in a good mood. The Olympics should be easier than this, but we'll need athletes who can persevere, and today we saw some good ones."
True equality
Before leaving the headquarters of the Binda Trophy, Elisa Balsamo has a flash of pride, in response to Alessandro Brambilla, according to whom in some areas of Italian sport women are more prominent than men: curious to know if she feels in some way superior to, for example, Milan and Ganna.
“You should be saying that,” Balsamo replies. “We do our part and we try to do it as best we can. Then we appeal to the press, to you in the media, to talk about us too. Women's cycling's cycling has made great strides, and we're no inferior to the men except visibility. Today, the crowd was worthy of a pro race. There are live TV broadcasts and maybe it would be even better if they were longer.It would be even better if newspapers gave us equal visibility. I think that the sacrifices we make are also made by men, so we have nothing more and nothing less than them».
There were few media present at the Cittiglio race and this is a fact. RAI broadcast live for an hour and 40 minutes: in the presentation press conference, Alessandro Fabretti, who is responsible for cycling on state television, said he wanted to work towards the full live coverage of the raceAnd in fact, the real race began when the filming bikes arrived. For the rest, there were several photographers, the local press, a correspondent from Belgium for Lotte Kopecky and little else. The final average was 38,292. The WorldTour has changed everything, and not taking advantage of it is truly shortsighted.
