Spain's Paula Blasi completed a head-turning season, graduating to UAE Team ADQ's WorldTour team mid-season and then winning the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie, where she also spent time in the leader's jersey. Now she has capped off a whirlwind under-23 campaign with the bronze medal in the under-23 women's standalone road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda - and has enjoyed every step of the way.
"It's been a crazy journey this year. I came from the development team, so every step was going faster and faster, so I was just trying to absorb everything and trying to enjoy every moment, because this maybe could only happen once in my life. I tried to take nothing for granted and take every race as something unique and try to enjoy it," said Blasi.
In her first full season last year, Blasi consistently finished inside the top 10 in four national-level races while racing for the Massi-Baix Ter club, then signed mid-season with the UAE Development Team.
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Riding for Spain at the Tour de l'Avenir, she finished fourth overall and then she finished fourth overall, again, at the Premondiale Giro Toscana Int. Femminile.
She also finished 2024 with double ninth places in the Team Time Trial Mixed Relay and the under-23 women's road race at the Worlds in Zürich.
Another strong spring saw Blasi finish in the top 10 in six one-day races, winning three of them: Gran Premio Della Liberazione Donne, Campionat Sabadell Femeni and Pointe du Raz Ladies Classic, which led to an offer to move up to the WorldTour counterpart at UAE Team ADQ in May.
Off to a strong start, she won La Périgord Ladies and then the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie, where she wore the leader's jersey but then slipped to second place in the overall classification behind overall winner Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime).
In Kigali this week, Blasi was one of 82 riders who participated in the first-ever standalone under-23 women's road race at the World Championships.
In a race of attrition across the 119.3km held on challenging city circuits that included a steep, cobbled climb over the Côte de Kimihurura, she ended up in a selection that went from 20 to 11 riders over the cobbles.
Marion Bunel (France) set a tough pace that ejected all but her teammate Célia Gery and Slovakia's Viktória Chladoňová, before the trio raced on towards the line. Bunel pulled off, and the Gery won the sprint for the world title, leaving Chladoňová to settle for silver.
Battle for bronze
But the race didn't end there as a splintering group behind raced for the bronze medal, and Blasi explained how she ended up on the podium.
"We were coming from this sharp corner, so I knew I had to come in the first position. I saw [Eleonora] Ciabocco, she was also there, and she put a really hard pace. I knew if you were going over your limit, you would just blow up, so I tried to go at a steady pace, but also a hard pace, because of course, I didn't want to go with a big group. But then I looked back and I saw the whole group, so after the hard part I just stepped back a little bit and saw what was happening," she said.
"Bunel just went full gas there, and I couldn't follow. I knew if I tried to follow, maybe I would not get there, and I would just be out. So I saw three of them going away, and we stayed with a group of four, and after the cobbles I was like 'ah, what do we do now?'.
"Because I knew it was two French girls in the front, so for sure they would be pulling, but then Isabella [Holmgren] tried to close the gap. I knew I was not going to close that gap because I would not do the work for the other girls, and for the first time, I tried to stay calm and let the others work and see what was happening.
"Then we saw Bunel was dropping a little bit, and Ciabocco went full gas. It was a hard climb at the end, it maybe didn't look as hard but we were really going slow, and when Ciabocco went full gas to close the last gap, and I saw it could be possible," she continued.
"I don't know if she knew I was on her wheel, but when we got to Bunel, I knew Ciabocco was really strong in the final, but she was already tired from closing the gap, and I just thought 'go full gas and close your eyes and give everything you have until the finish line'.
"And then I did the maths and said 'oh, there were just two girls in the front, maybe I got the medal' and I did."
Blasi has now completed her under-23 campaign with a bronze medal at the World Championships, in just two short seasons of racing. Next year, she will compete in her first full season on the WorldTour with UAE Team ADQ, hoping to compete in a range of Spring Classics.
"I think I still have to develop myself in the race scenario, but for sure, races like this one, where you just need to have really strong legs," she said. "I really enjoy these kinds of races. I really want to try races like Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix. I really want to try all the calendar and then from there decide.
"But for sure, I really enjoy these races. Also, the big stage races, I think I would really enjoy, but I haven't done them. I don't know, but I will definitely be there."
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