Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) won stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse Women with a solo attack ahead of Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Steffi Häberlin (SD Worx-Protime). The Italian champion is also the new overall leader.
Longo Borghini was part of a group of five that formed when Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) attacked on the penultimate climb of the 105.3km stage at Fanghi.
The group split on the descent, and when Marlen Reusser (Movistar) had almost closed the gap to Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma-Phinney again on the final climb at Orselina, Longo Borghini attacked to go solo.
She had a 10-second lead at the top of the climb and could add to that on the descent and the final 5km of flat road as Van Dam, Reusser, and Niewiadoma-Phinney gave chase.
That advantage only grew as Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney missed a left turn in the chase and went off-course with 3km left to run.
Longo Borghini crossed the line 30 seconds ahead of Van Dam, with Häberlin, Reusser, and Niewiadoma-Phinney following at 47 seconds.
“I didn’t understand why Kasia was not taking turns with me, but then I saw that she was suffering a little bit, and I wanted to try something. I found myself with a gap and just went straight to the finish line. It was all or nothing, and this time I succeeded,” Longo Borghini explained her attack.
“I am super happy to have won here because I live not far away, close to Verbania, and it’s always nice to win somewhere close [to home]. My family was here watching me, and I’m proud of the victory today also for my team, UAE Team ADQ. Tomorrow I just want to enjoy wearing the yellow jersey."
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How it unfolded
Margot Vanpachtenbeke and Carlotta Cipressi in the break of the day (Image credit: Getty Images)
Starting and finishing in Locarno, stage 2 was mainly an out-and-back course through the canton of Ticino, turning around just north of Malvaglio in the Blenio valley to head back south.
The final 20km then featured two climbs: The 3.6km, 7% ascent to Fanghi crested with 13.6km to go, and after a short plateau and a technical descent, the 1.2km, 8.9% climb on the Via Consiglio Mezzano immediately followed.
It took an hour for the breakaway to be established; eventually, Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek) and Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health) got away and quickly built an advantage of just over two minutes.
40km from the finish, this had been brought back down to 1:15 minutes when Josie Talbot (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) attacked from the peloton, trying to bridge to the front on her own. But as the gap went back out to 2:10 minutes, the Australian’s chase was unsuccessful, and she was back in the bunch with 26km to go.
With the two climbs coming up, the peloton increased the pace and quickly reduced the gap to the break, reeling in Vanpachtenbeke and Cipressi 18.8km from the line.
Reusser, Van Dam, Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma-Phinney, De Vries, and Häberlin on the move up one of the late climbs (Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton was already reduced to about 20 riders when Niewiadoma-Phinney made her move halfway up the Fanghi climb. Stage 1 winner and yellow jersey Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike), Longo Borghini, Häberlin, and Reusser were able to follow the attack, and Van Dam managed to bridge to the group just as Häberlin lost contact.
The Swiss champion returned on the plateau at the top of the climb and immediately tried to attack. Longo Borghini and Reusser shut down her move, but it had been enough to drop De Vries.
Van Dam narrowly avoided a crash at the start of the descent but had to let a gap open in the group, and this saw Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini pull ahead on the descent.
On the final climb, Reusser worked hard to bring the chase group with Van Dam and Häberlin back to the front and had almost closed the gap when Longo Borghini attacked, leaving the Polish champion behind to go solo with 9km left.
10 seconds ahead at the top, Longo Borghini increased her advantage on the descent. Her victory was already all but secure when Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney missed a left turn in the final, going off-course for a short period before realising their mistake and turning back.
Van Dam, suddenly alone in second position, went on without them to finish second while Häberlin joined Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney and outsprinted them for third place.
Häberlin leads Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney across the line (Image credit: Getty Images)
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Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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