World champion Elisa Balsamo was disqualified from the Paris-Roubaix fam for being illegally towed by a Trek-Segafredo team car during the chase after a puncture.

The Italian suffered a puncture as she approached Mont-en-Pévert with 48 km to go in the race, and was later shown on television footage receiving a sticky bottle from a team car as she tried to close the gap to the leaders after a cobbled sector.

Trek-Segafredo confirmed Balsamo's disqualification in a social media post. 'Unfortunately, Elisa Balsamo was disqualified due to an illegal chase into the pack (sticky bottle). She has been removed from the race."

Balsamo had ridden into Paris-Roubaix this spring as one of the favorites to win, with remarkable victories at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Bruges des Pannes, and Gent-Wevelgem. [Balsamo's teammate Elisa Longo Borghini won the race in a solo breakaway, with Lucinda Brando on the podium in third place.

After the race, Longo Borghini mentioned all of her teammates.

"Honestly, it was a great team performance today and I wish I could take all my teammates to the podium. Lucinda was perfect and everyone was where they needed to be in every sector. Lucinda was perfect. Without them we wouldn't have won any of the races."

"Also, and this goes a bit for Elisa Balsamo, who was disqualified, sometimes in a race you grab a sticky bottle. Rules are rules, but it still makes me feel a little bad."