Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie Féminin, outsprinting her teammate Lotte Kopecky after a hard ten-kilometre climb to Vercorin. Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) finished third, 34 seconds behind.
After a mostly flat start, the stage came down to the final climb overlooking the Rhône valley. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) set the pace on the lower slopes before Mavi García (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) took over, steadily reducing the group until only 12 riders were left.
An acceleration by Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime) blew this group apart, and only Realini, García, and the three SD Worx-Protime riders were left at the three-kilometre mark.
Another acceleration by Realini dropped García, but when Fisher-Black also lost contact, Vollering eased off, allowing her teammate to return and launch her own attack.
Realini countered immediately, and only Vollering and Kopecky could follow the Italian climber. When Vollering made her move at the flamme rouge, Realini had to let go, but Kopecky inched her way back to her teammate's wheel, setting up a close-fought sprint for the line that Vollering won by a few centimetres.
“It was super hot today, and it was a hard final climb. It was stop-and-go the whole time, and I knew she [Kopecky, ed.] could do that really well. She was really strong today, and I wanted to outsprint her, of course. I actually thought I had dropped her, then I looked towards the line, and suddenly she was next to me. Luckily I won, but she was very strong today,” said Vollering describing the finish.
Due to the bonus seconds for her second place on stage 1, Kopecky takes the GC lead, two seconds ahead of Vollering.
“I don’t know. It’s a strange situation because I will leave the team, so I hope my team will be neutral on this. We will see tomorrow. Lotte is ahead of me, so probably they will go for her."
How it unfolded
The 101.9km stage consisted of two short laps and one longer lap in the Rhône valley, the longer lap including the third-category climb to Varen, before heading to the finishing climb to Vercorin.
Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ), Giada Borghesi (Human Powered Health), Noelle Ingold, and Jasmin Liechti (both Switzerland) formed the break of the day, but their advantage never rose to much more than one minute, and they were caught before the start of the Varen climb.
After an unsuccessful attempt by Rosita Reijnhout (Visma-Lease a Bike), Caroline Andersson (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) attacked from the peloton. She crested the climb with an eight-second gap but was caught in the descent.
Stage 1 winner Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won the intermediate sprint with 13.6km to go followed by a high-speed run-in to the climb. Starting with 10km to go, it had an average gradient of 8.2% with ramps of up to 15%.
Moolman-Pasio set the pace early on, and 8.5km from the line, the South African made an acceleration that only Vollering and Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) followed, leaving a gap behind the trio. García closed the gap, and a kilometre later, she took over the pacing from Moolman-Pasio.
Several strong climbers like Élise Chabbey, Neve Bradbury, Antonia Niedermaier (all Canyon-SRAM), Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez), Francesca Barale (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), and Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) were dropped on the first half of the climb.
At the 5km mark, only Vollering, Fisher-Black, Kopecky, Realini, Juliette Labous, Nienke Vinke (both DSM-Firmenich PostNL), García, Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health), and the AG Insurance-Soudal trio of Moolman-Pasio, Sarah Gigante, and Lore De Schepper remained.
Vinke’s attack with 4.2km to go was shut down by García who then sneaked away herself, prompting Vollering to close the gap. This acceleration caused gaps to appear further down the group, and only five riders were left at the front going into the last three kilometres.
Realini’s attack 2.6km from the line dropped García, but Fisher-Black managed to get back on and launch her own move with 1.6km to go. Realini countered, and the New Zealander had nothing left to respond, leaving only Realini, Vollering, and Kopecky to fight for the stage.
Vollering attacked hard at the flamme rouge, dropping Realini, and Kopecky went around the Italian to try to bridge to her teammate, making the jump around 800 metres from the line. Vollering launched her sprint at the 200-metre mark, but Kopecky drew alongside her on the last metres, and both riders threw their bikes on the line, with Vollering timing her throw better to win the stage.
Results
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