Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden Road Race 2019

Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden Road Race 2019 - Overview

Marta Bastianelli (Team Virtu Cycling) won the Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden Road Race, using her fast finish and sprint skills to win the prestigious Swedish WorldTour race.

The Italian champion came through the final corner in the slipstream of Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) and came past Vos on the final metres, winning the race with just a few centimetres. Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) sprinted to third place.

Read the full race report here.

Overview

The Women's WorldTour continues in Vargarda, Sweden, for second of two races on August 18 at the 2019 Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden Road Race. 

The women's will complete 149.7km on a route that has changed compared to last year. This year, the peloton will take on a longer circuit of about 69.3km that includes five gravel road sections; Brunnlid (6.3km) at the 16km mark, Eklanda (3.5km) at the 23km mark, Slatthult (3.7km) at the 32km mark, Kvinnestad (2.7km) at the 55km mark, and Landa (3.1km) at the 63km mark.

Then there are four shorter Hägrunga laps that are 11.4km each, and finally four closing longer laps of15.3km each.

In last year's edition of 2018 Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden Road Race, Marianne Vos (then WaowDeals) used her power, guile and timing to perfection, jumping around the Team Sunweb lead-out in the final corner to take the victory. Kirsten Wild (then Wiggle High5) beat Lotta Lepistö (then Cervélo-Bigla) in the sprint for second.

Scandinavian race organisers have unveiled a new ten-stage event that they believe will be the hardest race on the women’s calendar. The new race will be known as the Battle of the North and will make its debut in 2021.

The race is the combined efforts of the organisers of the Ladies Tour of Norway and the PostNord Vårgårda WestSweden, along with the Danish Cycling Federation. The new event will replace the Norwegian and Swedish races, which come back-to-back in August on the current WorldTour calendar, and it will be ridden over 10 stages and 11 days.

2019 Postnord Vargarda WestSweden - Brief Results