One year ago, Ricarda Bauernfeind was racing for Canyon-SRAM Generation and watched the Tour de France Femmes on TV. After a string of excellent results, she and her teammate Antonia Niedermaier 'graduated' to the Women's WorldTour outfit Canyon-SRAM Racing – now, Bauernfeind can call herself Tour de France Femmes stage winner after a solo attack to Albi.
"It's such a big difference. Last year I saw the photos, and watched all the stages on TV, to be here myself now is very special, and I really enjoy it."
After a whirlwind Tour de France Femmes stage 5 that saw the peloton split into several groups on the Côte de Najac halfway through, Bauernfeind got the call from the team car to attack on the drag up to the bonus sprint in Castelfadèze.
"I was already tired and thought, 'If I go for this attack then maybe I will get dropped on the next climb'. But I trusted in the DS and went," said the 23-year-old German.
Bauernfeind went all-out to the line before celebrating the biggest win of her career so far as she knew that two very strong riders were chasing behind her, Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) and Liane Lippert (Movistar Team).
"I wanted to pass the finish line first because I never thought that I could make it. Marlen Reusser was behind me, she is always a fast chaser," Bauernfeind said.
Reusser and Lippert both said after the race that they were very happy about Bauernfeind's victory, even rooting for her to win while they were chasing her. Having two such accomplished riders being chuffed about her win touched Bauernfeind.
"Oh, that's so nice to hear. It's really nice of them," she said.
Bauernfeind's trajectory to the very top of the sport is even more astonishing as she only joined a UCI team for the 2022 season. Before that, she had raced for her local German club RSG Ansbach, winning two national junior championships on the track, but eventually, Bauernfeind decided to turn her focus to studying.
"I wanted to become a teacher, so I started to study for that. Then came the pandemic. I did a lot of Zwift riding so I could stay in form and was still competing at the German Championships. I stopped because I had lost a bit of the fun, I was always putting pressure on myself. Then I got the opportunity to join the Canyon-SRAM Generation team where the focus was more on learning and developing the riders, without any pressure. It was the best step for me, also in order to learn to race in a bigger bunch. The gap between the national races and the international races is still super big. Finally, I could join the Canyon-SRAM Racing team, and it's nice to be here now," Bauernfeind laid out her unusual path to a Tour stage victory.
Earlier this month, Niedermaier had won a stage of the Giro d'Italia Donne, but Bauernfeind denied that there was any rivalry, even light-hearted, between the two young Germans.
"I think we are one team, and every victory is nice for the team. It's not as if we are competitors," she laughed.
With her stage win, Bauernfeind also moved up to ninth place in the general classification. Nevertheless, the team will be all-in for Kasia Niewiadoma, currently fourth overall 51 seconds behind Kopecky, on stage 7 that finishes atop the Col du Tourmalet.
"With Kasia, we have one rider very much in the front of the GC. She is super strong on the climbs and I will definitely support her. Maybe we can both finish in a good position, but right now I am really happy with my stage win," Bauernfeind finished.
