Greig Leach

Last week Elisa Balsamo (Valcar-Travel & Service) was winning the UCI Road World Championship, today, bedecked in her brand new rainbow jersey she was sliding through the mud in the Hell of the North. Balsamo, was in the middle of the group chasing the lone leader when she fishtailed in the mud of Section 11 of pave, the Mons en Pevele. She had braked a little too hard to avoid another rider going down just ahead of her. With all of the wet mud on the rough cobblestones, it was to hard for her to keep her bike upright. It was that much worse as she slid to a stop in a soggy mud puddle. It could have been much worse, the road surface is very, very painful fall onto at speed. She wasn’t hurt, but lost the wheels of the chase group and I never saw her on camera again.