The Women’s WorldTour will conclude at the first-ever edition of Tour de Romandie Féminin held from October 7-9 in Switzerland. There will be nothing easy about the three-day race set to take place in the surrounding mountains with a decisive stage 2 summit finish at Thyon 2000.
The Tour de Romandie is a long-standing event on the men’s WorldTour that held its 75th edition this year and was won by Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe).
It is a welcomed addition to the top-tier women’s calendar and even though it’s only three stages, compared to the men’s six, the terrain ranges from hilly to mountainous and will undoubtedly cater to aggressive racing.
This won’t be a fizzling out of this year’s road season, as one only needs to look at the start list to see that Tour de Romandie Féminin has enticed a world-class field.
Contenders
Toeing the line are world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Demi Vollering (SD Worx), and also on the provisional start list are Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo). Then there is Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) who are all looking to close out the season on a high note.
Van Vleuten has had a remarkable season winning the Giro d’Italia Donne, Tour de France Femmes and the Challenge by La Vuelta. She will line up as the new world champion having, despite breaking her elbow in the team time trial, won the road race title at the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong in September.
Her performances on mountainous terrain and prime late-season form make her the outright favourite to win the overall title at the Tour de Romandie.
She will not be without competition, however, and several of the main contenders were forced to settle for lower placings in the top-10 at this year’s Tour de France Femmes, and perhaps come to the Tour de Romandie looking for some redemption.
Vollering was Van Vleuten’s closest rival though the mountains in France finishing second overall. She was forced to sit out of the World Championships, despite being in great shape, due to COVID-19. Though Van Vleuten went on to win the world title for the Dutch team, it was an unfortunate set back for Vollering.
At Tour de Romandie, Vollering will have support from a powerful team that includes Switzerland’s own, Marlen Reusser, who was part of the Swiss team that won the mixed team relay title and she finished third in the individual time trial in Wollongong. SD…
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