Veteran climber Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (SD Worx) triumphed atop Thyon 2000 to claim victory in the second stage of the inaugural Tour de Romandie Féminin.
Moolman-Pasio shrugged off the challenge of the World Champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) in the final few kilometres of the ascent to Thyon 2000, soloing to her first win of the season, in her final race as an SD Worx rider. She takes control of the green leader’s jersey going into the final day.
Van Vleuten, on her 40th birthday, dug deep to hang on for second place, with Elisa Longo Borghini coming through in third.
The Queen stage of the Swiss race, new to the Women’s World Tour calendar for 2022, featured over 2000m of climbing, backloaded into the final 50km of the stage.
Just two riders – Elise Uijden (Team DSM) and Georgia Baker (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) – comprised the early breakaway, but with two major obstacles along the route it was not to be their day, and they were absorbed back into the main peloton prior to the first climb of the day, the category 1 Suen.
It did not take long for the gaps to appear once the bunch hit the slopes of Suen, and a major split appeared, with a group of around 20 moving clear. The group remained intact over the peak of the climb and into the descent, but with 24km left Marlen Reusser (SD Worx), Soraya Paladin (Canyon//SRAM) and Arlenis Sierra of Movistar, winner of yesterday’s first stage and wearing the green leader’s jersey, went on the offensive, forming a lead group of three.
The trio stayed together until just over 10km to go, when the gruelling 7.7% average gradient of the climb began to take its toll. Sierra dropped back, her job done for the day, and SD Worx’s Demi Vollering began to struggle too, apparently short of her best form following a recent bout of COVID-19.
The slimmed-down GC group closed down Paladin and Reusser with 8.5km to go, and shortly after, Moolman-Pasio was the first to strike, setting a challenging tempo which had an immediate impact, further fracturing the GC group. Liane Lippert (Team DSM), Petra Stiasny (Switzerland) and Van Vleuten were the only riders capable of sticking with the South African’s infernal pace. Eventually, a chasing group of five ground their way back to the leading four, but with 6.5km to go, Van Vleuten launched her first attack. Once again, the group split apart, but she was unable to shake off Moolman-Pasio, Stiasny and Lippert, who managed the tempo to stay with the World Champion and re-form their lead group of four.
At 3.6km the irrepressible Moolman-Pasio launched another attack, causing Stiasny and Lippert to fall away, and from there it became a proper slogfest as the Dutchwoman and the South African went head-to-head towards the summit of Thyon. Their contrasting styles foreshadowed the outcome of the day, with Van Vleuten looking laboured, rocking and rolling on the bike as Moolman-Pasio looked cool and composed. Further back, Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) grafted to try and close the gap to Stiasny and Lippert, eventually moving into third position on the road.
With 2.5km to go, Moolman-Pasio struck the final blow, finally gaining a gap over her rival. Van Vleuten’s head dropped as she was unable to stay with the SD Worx rider, and the GC lead changed hands as the ‘Fromage Le Maréchal’ green jersey transferred to the shoulders of Moolman-Pasio, who enjoys her first win of 2022 following a difficult season.
Katy is a freelance writer and journalist. She has published interviews, features, and previews in Cycling News, Rouleur, Cyclist Magazine and the British Continental. She also writes opinion pieces on her own website writebikerepeat.com and is a frequent contributor to the Quicklink podcast.
She is obsessed with the narrative element of bike racing, from the bigger picture to the individual stories. She is a cyclocross nut who is 5% Belgian and wonders if this entitles her to citizenship. Her favourite races are Ronde van Vlaanderen and La Vuelta.
In her spare time Katy is a published short fiction and non-fiction author.
