Elisa Balsamo knew who to thank after taking her fourth stage win at the Giro d’Italia Women

And that makes four: Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) proved once again on Thursday that she is in a class of her own in the sprints at the women’s Giro d’Italia. After the finish, however, she knew very well who she had to thank: Lucinda Brand, who produced a truly perfect lead-out on stage six of the Italian stage race.

“Where is Lucinda?” Balsamo shouted after crossing the line while celebrating the stage win, before throwing herself into Brand’s arms. A moment later, in the flash interview: “If you have the best lead-out, it is easy. Well, not easy, but with Lucinda it is a lot easier,” she explained.

“I did not have to fight for position at all, just trust Lucinda. Because I know she is the best,” Balsamo continued after the flat stage. “We went wheel to wheel, with Fleur Moors as well, and were positioned perfectly where we had marked out.”

That was one of the last corners, 1.3 kilometres from the finish. “Before the stage we said: we have to be at the front there, and it did not even matter if I was sitting in second position, because the main thing was to stay safe. That Lucinda was then still able to bring me out at 200 metres from the finish was perfect.”

Brand in turn had nice words for Balsamo. 'Elisa is really in great shape, you can feel that from the way she behaves in the team and how she communicates,' the Dutchwoman said. 'There was a red circle around this race, with so many chances. It means a lot to us that things are going so well now too.'

'I didn't hear the fall (in that corner 1.3 kilometers from the finish, ed.), but saw a gap. We knew we had to take traffic circle from the front and then see how far we would get.' So that led to champagne again. 'At the end of the week we do deserve some champagne, but first we also have two classification riders. We won't forget those," Brand was referring to Niamh Fisher-Black and Isabella Holmgren.