The unusual “sticky bottle” that exposed the trap of the world cycling champion

This weekend ended the Paris-Roubaix women's race that dedicated Elisa Longo Borghini de Trek-Segafredo to Elisa Longo Borghini after having traveled 124 kilometers with 17 sections of cobbled mining roads. Beyond her victory, one of the news of the event was the disqualification of her teammate, Elisa Balsamo, who was disqualified.

The current 24-year-old world champion suffered a rubber puncture 50 kilometers from the finish line, which took her away from the top squad. After resolving the problem, he recovered his position, but the authorities detected that he had appealed to an unlawful maneuver that was captured by video cameras.

Balsamo used the “sticky bottle”, as this resource is known in cycling jargon, to advance several meters with little effort. As is known, the assistant teams can provide assistance to athletes in this type of competition either by providing them with spare parts or another bicycle, in the event of a mechanical failure, or even by giving them food or drink.

Some cyclists take advantage of this moment, when they are far from the rest of the competitors, to cheat, believing that no one will discover them. In the case of the Italian, what she did was hold a bottle that was reached from the assistance car for a long time to take advantage of the engine's momentum and thus recover some of the lost time.

While runners can take advantage of some momentum in these cases, there is a logical time limit for this and, as seen in the images, Balsamo abused this, so she was disqualified and left with no chance of being crowned. It is worth remembering that she had arrived at this event as one of the candidates after being consecrated in the 2021 Women's Road World Championship.

It was his teammate Elisa Longo Borghini who won the title after taking the lead with 30 km to go with a dizzying change of pace. Meanwhile, SD Worx's Lotte Kopecky won the sprint for second place, while Lucinda Brand, from Trek-Segafredo, was third when six cyclists finished just 23 seconds behind Longo Borghini.

The Olympic bronze medallist let out a long cry and burst into tears of joy before dedicating the victory to her family and her Trek team: “This is a bit for Elisa Balsamo, who was disqualified. The rules are the rules, but you still feel a little sorry,” she said after crossing the finish line. It was the team's second consecutive victory after British cyclist Lizzie Deignan triumphed under a flood in the 2021 edition.

In stark contrast to last year's mud festival, the second edition of the women's race was held in dry conditions and clouds of dust caused by many cyclists who used the dirt roads that run alongside the cobbled sections on the flat fields bordering the Belgian border.

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