We saw her shed tears of relief yesterday, and today Elisa Balsamo has made her mark once again, the third time in a Giro that delivers plenty of surprises. Among so many unexpected moments, she remains the only certainty—incredibly strong in the sprint, but also capable of managing herself, racing with her head and not being broken by a difficult climb.

"It was a very difficult day, but it was also very beautiful. The Montenars climb was really very hard, but I tried to climb at my own pace and grit my teeth to manage to find myself in a small group. My main objective was to keep the jersey. I knew the last 10 km were flat and I could make up time, so I didn't panic and tried to recover little by little. The team was fantastic today, they controlled the race, and then Niamh Fisher Black and Isabella Holmgren were phenomenal on the climb and always stayed up front," Elisa explains, highlighting how her team also did exceptional work. Lidl Trek indeed sought to control the race from the very beginning, preventing the dangerous six-rider breakaway from gaining too much ground, protected the pink jersey, and wasn't caught off guard on the climb. At the summit, in fact, the American team was the only one with two athletes ahead.

Elisa left absolutely nothing to chance. She knew that taking the stage would be extremely difficult, so she did reconnaissance to understand all the key points—how to recover from the climb and how to surprise her rivals. "I knew this stage because I had the opportunity to do the reconnaissance and that helped me so much. According to the gpx file, the finish was slightly further ahead, but fortunately there was an early passage that helped me better understand the various distances. I knew I had to wait as long as possible, I couldn't attack before 250 meters, and that's what I did," Elisa continued. "In the final meters I was giving everything, I couldn't take anymore, but I felt so many people around me giving me strength. The route was full of fans, we received a beautiful welcome. Many were shouting 'go Elisa,' I don't know if it was for me or for Longo, but it was truly special."

Tomorrow the group faces the Nevegal time trial climb. Elisa will almost certainly have to say goodbye to her pink jersey, but she'll try to enjoy it as much as possible. "When I think about tomorrow, I have to laugh because there couldn't be a worse day for me. The climb isn't my thing, and I hate time trials because I really don't like riding alone like that. Keeping the jersey is practically impossible. With the team, we'll try to approach it in a way that lets me pace myself and not blow up with an eye toward the following stages. I think many athletes tested their legs today with the climb in mind."