Paula Blasi blasts to time trial victory at Romandie Féminin after 5 teams disqualified
Blasi leads overall with two stages to go. The race was disrupted after five teams were disqualified following a dispute with the UCI regarding tracking devices.
Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) won the opening stage mountain time trial of the Tour de Romandie Féminin, taking her first victory at WorldTour level.
The Spanish rider stopped the clock in Villar-sur-Ollon 11:17 after the 4.4km uphill test in the Swiss Alps. Blasi will wear the leader’s jersey during Saturday’s mountain road stage, having beaten Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) into second place, with Juliette Labous (FDJ-SUEZ) in third, 17 and 18 seconds down respectively.
However, long before the first rider rolled down the start ramp, the race was mired in controversy, with five teams disqualified. Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto, Picnic-PostNL, EF Education-Oatly, Lidl-Trek and Visma | Lease a Bike had been in a dispute with the UCI’s race commissaires over the fitting of rider tracking devices, on trial by the governing body to improve rider safety.
Blasi’s UAE Team ADQ squad took full advantage of the replacing three riders in the top 10, with Erica Magnaldi fifth and Alena Ivanchecnko eighth.
How it unfolded
The fourth edition of the Tour de Romandie Féminin kicked off with a short and very punchy mountain time trial. The 4.4km TT between Huémoz and Vollars-sur-Ollon presented the riders with an average gradient of 6.2% and ramps of well over 12% early in the piece.
Team SD Worx-Protime’s New Zealander, Mikayla Harvey set an early benchmark, crossing the line in 11:49, though she was soon eclipsed Alena Ivanchenko, the UAE Team ADQ rider putting two seconds into Harvey.
While the Russian’s time stood for a while, Harvey’s team mate, Steffi Häberlin took a second out of her before she was immediately beaten by Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) by another one second margin.
Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) was next to set the best time but her time was blown away by Paula Blasi’s race winning time.
The disqualifications left only 63 riders in a race where fewer than 100 riders were on the original start list. Some of the pre-race favourites will beheading home without a race in their legs. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) were chief among those favourites, having both finished the recent Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
