All the pieces appeared to have fallen into place for SD Worx-Protime on the opening stage at the Tour de Romandie Féminin, but when it came right down to the finish line, World Champion Lotte Koepcky wasn't fast enough to beat Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and was forced to settle for second place in Lausanne.
“You always want to win! Of course, you're a bit disappointed if you are this close to winning. On the other hand, I think we rode a very solid race today, so we can go into tomorrow's stage with confidence,” said SD Worx's sports director, Danny Stam, after the stage.
After an active showing on the rolling stage with the team's Christine Majerus and Femke Markus being part of a big breakaway, defending overall champion Demi Vollering then performed a near-perfect led out for Kopecky on the final climb to the finish only to come up one place short of the stage victory.
Stam said the goal was for Vollering to try to reduce the front group to a more manageable field size on the final climb to give Kopecky a higher chance of winning.
“The plan today was to thin out the leading group as much as possible by setting a high pace on the final climb and then sprint with Lotte Kopecky," Stam said.
"When the big breakaway formed, we had Christine Majerus and Femke Markus up there. That was good, but ideally, we would have had another rider who gets over the climbs better."
Majerus and Markus were among the riders dropped on the last classified climb of the day, Mont-Pèlerin, putting the team on the back foot. Kopecky herself set the pace for part of the climb, and Vollering attacked over the top and into the descent to keep the speed high.
The remainder of the break was caught on the descent, and Majerus then went on the attack again, forcing the other sprinters’ teams to chase until she was caught early on the 3km finishing climb.
Vollering then led out Kopecky well, but the World Champion lost to Balsamo on the final metres. “Lotte started well but went just a little bit too early. Overall, the first stage went as we had hoped, we’re only lacking the victory," Stam said.
"Balsamo was able to hang on during the climb; that was strong by her and unfortunate for us."
After the stage 1 disappointment, the team wants to make amends on stage 2. Finishing with a long and hard climb to Vercorin, this is the stage Vollering has circled as the day to make the difference and try to defend her 2023 overall victory.
“Tomorrow is a very different day. It will be a tough stage, especially with the final ten-kilometre climb at an average of 8%. It’s clear that we will try to play Demi Vollering's card, but you can never predict a race in advance,” Stam said.
