Elisa Balsamo is close to achieving the feat at the women’s Paris-Roubaix 2024: the blue girl’s tears after second place for the dream that was missed and shattered only at the last corner.
Elisa Balsamo close to the company Women’s Paris-Roubaix 2024: the tears after second place give us an idea of how close the dream of the 26-year-old cyclist from Cuneo was to coming true. The Belgian won ahead of the Italian Lotte Kopecky in a very tight sprint in the Petrieux velodrome. The world champion managed to get the upper hand with a sprint at the last corner. Third place for Pfeiffer Georgi.
It was the fourth edition of the Roubaix in the “femmes” version: the English Deignan (2021), the Piedmontese Longo Borghini (2022) and the Canadian Alison Jackson (2023) were already in the roll of honour. A world champion returns to win Roubaix after 6 years: the last one was Peter Sagan in 2018.
With 15 kilometers to go, Elisa Balsamo’s race seemed to be doomed because the Italian suddenly broke away from the leading group in cobbled sector number 4, losing about ten seconds. Slowly the Italian caught on to Pfiffer Georgi’s wheels and taking advantage of the great work of the British she returned to the leading group before managing to make a sprint that took her to the second step of the podium.
Because goats were brought along the Paris-Roubaix route: they play a fundamental role
Great performance from Kopecky, who demonstrated that he knows how to do everything in this Paris-Roubaix. The world champion attacked several times in the first cobblestone sectors, before having a problem with her handlebars: she never lost her composure, she got a wrench and fixed everything herself without ever stopping pedaling.
The final standings of the 2024 women’s Paris-Roubaix
This is the top 10 of the 2024 women’s Paris-Roubaix.
1 KOPECKY Lotte BEL (Team SD Worx – Protime) 3:47:13
2 BALM Elisa ITA (Lidl – Trek) 0:00
3 GEORGI Pfeiffer GBR (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) 0:00
4 VOS Marianne NED (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) 0:00
5 KRAAK Amber NED (FDJ – SUEZ) 0:00
6 VAN DIJK Ellen NED (Lidl – Trek) +0:06
7 WIEBES Lorena NED (Team SD Worx – Protime)+0:28
8 BERTEAU Victoire FRA (Cofidis Women Team) +0:28
9 LE NET Marie FRA (FDJ – SUEZ) +0:28
10 (LE COURT) PIENAAR Kimberley MRI (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) +0:28
