Elisa Balsamo loves a bit of added colour

When you think of a sprinter, you think of someone who is cutthroat. Someone who is willing to dive into any gap, risk everything for the win. Elisa Balsamo is not someone you would want to take on in a head-to-head race – but the Italian sprinter is as colorful and bubbly off the bike as she is fierce in the peloton.

For her wedding last year, Balsamo custom-ordered a dress from New York that she couldn't try on until just before the ceremony. The dress was the embodiment of Balsamo's personality: bold, hard to miss, and elegant, even when she is fighting to make it to a finish line before Lorena Wiebes.

Adding even more color to Balsamo's story is a pet parrot named Luna. Balsamo and her husband, track and road rider Davide Plebani, rescued Luna a few years ago and slowly coaxed her into a comfortable place.

"We kind of rescued her a couple of years ago, and now she's part of the family," Balsamo told Escape Collective. "It's not like a dog, but more or less, she's a pet. She loves cuddles, she is learning some tricks."

"She was quite aggressive at the beginning, and then we started working with her, trying to find some trust and confidence between each other, and now she's really calm."

Trust is something Balsamo is very familiar with. Her career relies on it. A sprinter, in Balsamo's eyes, is only as strong as her lead-out.

"I think trust in the lead-out is key, because you just really need to trust your teammate and follow them," Balsamo explained.

Part of that is unspoken communication.

"We trust each other, and my teammates know when I don't say anything, it is because I'm behind them, and they just need to go," Balsamo said. "If I lose them, then of course I scream, or I speak in the radio, and I let them know, but they always try to make space for me and for all the lead-out, so that's why I think we really trust each other."

Those bonds have developed over the years.

"Maybe at the beginning it was not real easy, because you know, when you change teammates, when you have someone new in the lead-out, you need some time, but I really think now we have a good lead-out," she said.

Balsamo with Lidl-Trek (including Elisa Longo Borghini) at the start of the Tour de France Femmes in 2023

Balsamo signed with Lidl-Trek for the 2022 season, and throughout her time with the team, her lead-out train has been a factor in the makeup of the roster. In her first year, riders like Ellen van Dijk, Lucinda Brand, and Amalie Dideriksen propelled Balsamo to wins at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, the Ronde van Brugge (then Brugge-De Panne), and Gent-Wevelgem (now In Flanders Fields-In Wevelgem). Balsamo even won the second stage of the Giro d'Italia that year and got to wear the pink leader's jersey during stage 3.

Over her five-year stint with Lidl-Trek, the team has evolved and changed. In 2023, they brought on Ilaria Sanguineti, who had been Balsamo's main lead-out woman at her previous team, Valcar-Travel & Service. During the 2025 season, Lidl-Trek underwent a massive roster shakeup that meant Balsamo's lead-out wasn't what it used to be. It's something the team has been actively working on both at the end of last season and the beginning of 2026.

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