How the race finished
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime) won the Tour de Romandie Féminin, after three podium finishes in three stages. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl Trek), Demi Vollering (SD Worx Protime) and Reijanne Markus) Visma | Lease a bike) were victorious in the three stages.
Full results are available below.
How it happened
Stage One took place on a rolling route from La Grande Béroche to Lausanne. On the rolling terrain attacks came quickly, but had trouble sticking. A strong breakaway of 17 riders finally formed with 40 km to go, including Elisa Balsamo (Lidl Trek) and a number of teams with more than one rider. The group was caught on the last classified climb to Mont Pélerin, but Christine Majerus and Liane Lippert pushed on solo. Ellen van Dijk and Loretta Hansen (Lidl Trek), who had been dropped on the last of the climbs, made their way back to the peloton and came straight to the front to take up the chase, bringing back Majerus and Holden at the base of the final 3km climb to the finish and setting up the sprint.
Demi Vollering (SD Worx Protime) set the pace on the front and in the final 500m of the uphill drag Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime) kicked to the line, but Elisa Balsamo (Lidl Trek) came off her wheel with speed, taking the win. Liane Lippert (Movistar) was third, with Noemi Rüegg (Swiss) the first Swiss and first young rider in fourth place.
Stage Two was earmarked as the major GC day, with a mountain top finish at Vercorin. The peloton departed from Chippis in sunshine, taking in three laps on the valley floor before a third category climb in the vineyards and then the final, 10km long climb at an average gradient of 8.5%. Despite a few attempts to form a breakaway, no group really managed to establish a strong gap – perhaps in part due to the testing of no race radios for the riders meaning there was less appetite in the peloton to let riders go clear.
Caroline Andersson (Liv AlUla Jayco) nudged away solo in search of the mountain points, but was brought back shortly after. On the climb Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance Soudal) attacked early,. Stringing out the peloton on the steep lower switchbacks. When the road flattened slightly there were only around twenty riders left. As the road weaved in and out of tunnels on the mountain side, Niamh Fisher Black (SD Worx Protime) increased the pace on the front, causing splits behind as riders struggled to follow.
Eventually only five remained – Fisher Black alongside teammates Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky with Mavi Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Gaia Realini (Lidl Trek). Of the five Garcia was dropped first, and then Fisher Black struggled to follow the pace. Realini attacked coming into the final kilometre, but Vollering went over the top, with Kopecky working hard to retain contact with her teammate. In the final 200m Vollering started the sprint to the line, but Kopecky held on, setting up a two-way teammate sprint finish. Kopecky threw to the line a little early, leaving it open for Vollering to claim the stage. But, with bonus seconds picked up on stage one, Kopecky took the overall race lead, two seconds ahead of Vollering. Realini held on for third across the line.
The third stage, with more hilly terrain, promised an exciting stage as the final GC places remained up for grabs. Mireia Benito (AG Insurance Soudal) kicked things off, setting off solo before being joined by Mijntje Deurts Henrietta Christie and Hannah Ludwig. The quartet were then joined by the strong trio of Grace Brown, Chloe Dygert and Demi Vollering – but the peloton shut down this dangerous group. Mountain classification leader Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime) took maximum points on the first climb of the day at Reverolle, while sprint leader Elisa Balsamo (Lidl Trek) took the maximum points in the intermediate sprint at Bussy Chardonney.
After the first lap was complete Niamh Fisher Black (SD Worx Protime) and Reijanne Markus (Visma | Lease a Bike) went clear, working together to build up a lead of four minutes, putting Fisher Black in the virtual lead. A group tried to counter attack but wasn’t allowed to go across, but the movement in the peloton saw the gap to the leaders come down. Lidl Trek, AG Insurance Soudal, Liv AlUla Jayco and Movistar worked to bring the gap down to two minutes. On the steep climbs to Bougy Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix Deceuninck) and Caroline Andersson (Liv AlUla Jayco) tried to get away, but the peloton marked everything out.
The attacks continued to come from the peloton, with the gap to the leaders coming down to under one minute. Nienke Vinke (dsm firmenich Post NL) slipped away solo. Movistar led the chase to bring her back, but the leading duo couldn’t be caught. After a long day up the road sMarkus outsprinted Fisher Black for the stage win, while Kopecky (SD Worx Protime) led home the chasers behind. A crash in the closing kilometres affected a number of riders, who were given the same time as Kopecky at the finish.
Kopecky defended her leader’s jersey, becoming the third different rider from SD Worx Protime to win the Tour de Romandie Féminin in three years. Vollering took home second, with Realini just holding on the third ahead of Fisher Black who moved up into fourth on the overall.
Full Results
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