All of the items appeared to have fallen into place for SD Worx-Protime on the opening stage on the Tour de Romandie Féminin, however when it got here proper all the way down to the end line, World Champion Lotte Koepcky wasn’t quick sufficient to beat Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and was compelled to accept second place in Lausanne.
“You at all times need to win! After all, you are a bit disenchanted in case you are this near successful. Then again, I feel we rode a really strong race right now, so we are able to go into tomorrow’s stage with confidence,” stated SD Worx’s sports activities director, Danny Stam, after the stage.
After an lively exhibiting on the rolling stage with the crew’s Christine Majerus and Femke Markus being a part of an enormous breakaway, defending total champion Demi Vollering then carried out a near-perfect led out for Kopecky on the ultimate climb to the end solely to return up one place in need of the stage victory.
Stam stated the purpose was for Vollering to attempt to cut back the entrance group to a extra manageable area measurement on the ultimate climb to present Kopecky a better probability of successful.
“The plan right now was to skinny out the main group as a lot as attainable by setting a excessive tempo on the ultimate climb after which dash with Lotte Kopecky,” Stam stated.
“When the large breakaway fashioned, we had Christine Majerus and Femke Markus up there. That was good, however ideally, we’d have had one other rider who will get over the climbs higher.”
Majerus and Markus had been among the many riders dropped on the final categorised climb of the day, Mont-Pèlerin, placing the crew on the again foot. Kopecky herself set the tempo for a part of the climb, and Vollering attacked excessive and into the descent to maintain the pace excessive.
The rest of the break was caught on the descent, and Majerus then went on the assault once more, forcing the opposite sprinters’ groups to chase till she was caught early on the 3km ending climb.
Vollering then led out Kopecky nicely, however the World Champion misplaced to Balsamo on the ultimate metres. “Lotte began nicely however went just a bit bit too early. General, the primary stage went as we had hoped, we’re solely missing the victory,” Stam stated.
“Balsamo was capable of hold on throughout the climb; that was sturdy by her and unlucky for us.”
After the stage 1 disappointment, the crew desires to make amends on stage 2. Ending with a protracted and exhausting climb to Vercorin, that is the stage Vollering has circled because the day to make the distinction and attempt to defend her 2023 total victory.
“Tomorrow is a really totally different day. It is going to be a troublesome stage, particularly with the ultimate ten-kilometre climb at a median of 8%. It’s clear that we are going to attempt to play Demi Vollering’s card, however you possibly can by no means predict a race upfront,” Stam stated.
