Both Elisa Balsamo and Elisa Longo Borghini have pulled out of this year’s Tour de France Femmes before stage 7. These two cyclists from Italy, who are part of the Lidl-Trek team, quit before the seventh stage began. Longo Borghini has a skin infection on her thigh and Balsamo chose to rest because of fatigue. Realistically she will win or be able to support too much over the Tourmalet and TT stages. Balsamo also has a lot of racing to do at the World Championships, which begin next week.
After six stages in the Women’s Tour de France, Longo Borghini was fourth. She was lagging by 55 seconds from the leader, Lotte Kopecky, wearing the yellow jersey. However, her timing was the same as world champ Annemiek van Vleuten. “Unfortunately, Elisa Longo Borghini has had to withdraw from the Tour de France Femmes in the lead-up to today’s stage over the Col du Tourmalet. This was a stage she was looking forward to,” said the team on social media.
“The Italian champion has a skin infection on the upper part of her left thigh, for which she had to be treated in the hospital after stage six. The infection is now under control, but she still has a lot of pain and in the interest of her long-term health, it has been decided that she will not continue riding.”
Photo credit: ASO/Charly Lopez
