World champion Balsamo ready for 'different scenarios' at Tour de France
Italian to💝 support Longo Borghini alongside 🙈targeting sprints

Elisa Balsamo will be one of the key favourites on the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift's sprint stages, but the Italian is open to other opportunꦯities as Trek-Segafredo chase stage wins and a high overall placing.
Balsamo's compatriot 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Elisa Longo Borghini will be 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:the team's leader for thღe general classification, and the world champion will combine her own goal♈s with her helper duties.
"I think a lot of stages are very open♏ to different scenarios," Balsamo said. "So I am ready to try for any sprints but also to potentially go in the breakaways and also to give 100 per cent to help my teammate, Elisa Longo Borghini, go for the GC."
A day where the team will focus on their sprinter, though, is stage 1. Winning on the Champs-Elysées is a big goal for Balsamo,🉐 and could see her swap ꦿrainbow for yellow.
"Of course, I have some personal goals for the race," she said. "The first day will be a very har൲d one but being on the podium there is a dream for me."
With several stages suited to puncheurs or breakaways, there could also be more 🌜opportuniti♏es for Balsamo to better the purer sprinters in the bunch.
Balsamo is already having a successful July, winning two stages at the Giro d'ﷺItalia Donne and wearing the maglia rosa. As one of many riders racing both the Giro and the Tour - and with big goals at both - the last two weeks have been spent trying to recover and prepare as much as possible.
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"After t🌜he Giro Donne, I went to altitude training where I was trying to find the best balance between rest and training," Balsamo said of her preparation. "I think I did a good job and hopefully my body is as ready for the Tour as my mind."
Wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey will make Balsಞamo a watched rider at the Tour de France, but it's something that adds an extra layer of significance to the highly-anticipated race.
"It'🌠s going to be even more special for me🅷 because I will be the rainbow jersey in the first edition of this new Tour de France Femmes so it's amazing for me and I am also very happy about this."
"I am very excited for the Tour de France Femmes and I really want ꦦto enjoy every moment of it from the first stage to the last one. Of course, it is going to be an epic race with a lot of people on the roads so, I am really proud to be a part of our team for the race."
Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN, and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull ♏and more. She has reported from many of the biggest 💟events on the calendar, including the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France Femmes, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. She has particular experience and expertise in women's cycling, and women's sport in general. She is a graduate of modern languages and sports journalism.