Elisa Balsamo, winner of the 2020 European U23 championship, this year’s winner of GP Oetingen in Belgium, and winner of stages at the 2019 Tour of California and the 2020 Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta, has signed with Trek-Segafredo for the next three years.
Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, the Head Sport Director of Trek-Segafredo, said: “Elisa is a young, super-talented rider who has already shown important growth in the last few years. In her, we see a great potential and big room for more growth to become a real top competitor in the Classics and in the fast finishes.”
In 2016, Balsamo won the junior world championship in Doha, the Italian national championship, and came second in the European championship. She then joined Valcar Travel & Service, and won Omloop van Borsele and the GP Beghelli.
On the length of her contract, Teutenberg said: “We are pleased we signed a three-year deal with her because it will allow us to work in the medium term to take her potential to the next level.”
About her new team, Balsamo said: “Signing with Trek-Segafredo means satisfying my desire to grow alongside champions. I’ll be racing with riders who already won a lot, who have huge experience and great charisma. For a young and ambitious rider, as I feel I am, this is a key factor to make the leap in quality.”
She particularly emphasized the organisation and attention to detail in the Trek-Segafredo team as something that attracted her: she described moving to her new team as “an important change, but not a leap into the void”.
Balsamo also said that she is aiming for success in races in the North, and that being competitive at those will be her primary goal in the upcoming season.
