One day after winning the opening road stage in Villars-sur-Olon, Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) repeated the trick on the stage 2 time trial in the same mountain town with a strong performance on the final kilometres to stop the clock at 39:47 minutes.
Her effort beat the time of Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) by 18 seconds. Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale) finished third at 25 seconds. In the general classification, Vollering has now extended her advantage to 1:26 over Longo Borghini and 1:28 minutes over Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek).
“It was a really hard climb, and at the intermediate time, I was only third, but I knew that I can push the limits on the last part and really empty myself completely. That’s what I did, and luckily, it was enough for the first place, and I even gained some time, so I’m really happy with that,” said Vollering after the stage.
“I feel good, and it’s not my top peak yet, actually I’m surprised and really happy with my shape, so I hope I can even continue this for my biggest goals a bit later in the season."
How it unfolded
The stage 2 time trial started in the Rhône Valley at the UCI’s Centre Mondial du Cyclisme in Aigle and covered 15.7km to the ski resort of Villars-sur-Ollon at an altitude of 1,249 metres. The first timing point came after 5.2 flat kilometres before the climb began. A second intermediate time was taken in Huémoz, 3.2km from the finish.
Early starter Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) was fastest on the first part with 6:34 minutes, but she did not climb as well as Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale), whose time of 43:28 stood for a while.
Becky Storrie (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) took 17 seconds off Faulkner’s time and stayed in the hot seat for almost half an hour until Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) bested Storrie’s time by two minutes, setting a new benchmark at 41:11.
Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-Sram) turned out to be her team’s best finisher, stopping the clock at 40:48 minutes and taking the lead from Chapman. Her teammates Kasia Niewiadoma and Elise Chabbey weren’t as good, losing more than two and three minutes, respectively.
Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) posted a time 28 seconds faster than Niedermaier at the intermediate time halfway up the climb but lost half of her advantage on the way to the finish. 40:34 wass still the new best time – however, Cadzow soon took 21 seconds off that to take the lead.
Longo Borghini was the only rider to come close to Schweinberger’s time on the flat section and continued to impress on the climb. Her intermediate time of 29:48 minutes was 20 seconds faster than Cadzow. At the finish line, Longo Borghini was still eight seconds faster than the New Zealander to take the lead with 40:05 minutes.
Realini did a good time trial to finish in sixth place, and Chabbey was off the pace, so it all came down to Vollering who was riding in the yellow leader’s jersey.
At the intermediate time, the Dutch superstar was 24 seconds behind Longo Borghini, but on the last 3.2 kilometres, she took an astonishing 42 seconds from the Italian, finishing in 39:47 minutes – the only rider to break the 40-minute barrier – and extending her GC lead.
Results
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