Pre-race favourite Paula Ostiz manages pressure to deliver junior women’s world title

Paula Ostiz (Spain) had plenty of expectation on her shoulders ahead of the world championships as the pre-race favourite, but managed the pressure and sprinted to victory in a tense finale to the junior women’s road race in Kigali, Rwanda.

Twelve months ago, Ostiz had to settle for second behind Cat Ferguson in a sprint to the line in a rain-soaked Zürich, Switzerland.

This year in Kigali, a group of five riders, including Ostiz, forged clear on the final ascent of the Côte de Kimihurura, and would battle it out for victory in a cagey uphill sprint to the line. 

With a chase group closing in behind, it could have been easy to panic, but Ostiz, illustrating her learnings from last year’s experience, timed her sprint to perfection, ahead of Chantal Pegolo (Italy), whilst Anja Grossman, who was particularly active throughout the race, settled for bronze. Sidney Swierenga (Canada), and Giada Silo (Italy) were the other two riders in the final selection and ended 4th and 5th, respectively.

Kahsay Tsige Kiros (Ethiopia) delivered the best African result of the championships so far, ending 7th, despite an ill-timed mechanical. 

Antonie Cermanova (Czech Republic) was on the move early on the second of five laps that the junior women would tackle with 58km remaining.

However, throughout the second lap, the pace increased significantly on the Côte de Kigali Golf and Côte de Kimihurura, which saw Cermanova caught, and did plenty of damage, splitting the peloton in half. Kahsay Tsige Kiros (Ethiopia) was particularly active at the front of the peloton on each climb on lap two.

Onto lap three and Leyre Almeda (Spain) was next to roll the dice, and the Spanish rider wasn’t joined for company as she built an advantage which was more than 30 seconds with 40km remaining.

Tsige Kiros suffered a problem at the base of the Côte de Kimihurura climb and had to battle to return to the peloton, which she was able to do. On the same climb, Almeda was caught by what remained of the peloton, which was larger in size at this stage of the circuit compared to the previous lap.

Arabella Blackburn (Great Britain) was the animator at the start of the fourth and penultimate lap, which stretched out the peloton on the fast-flowing first half of the circuit.

Through the line ahead of the bell lap, the peloton had grown in size as there was a sense of stalemate with the final lap and climbs on the horizon. Roos Müller (Netherlands) launched a big attack at the start of the final lap, and was joined by Karolina Spicarová (Czech Republic), with one of the pre-race favourites, Anja Grossman (Switzerland) also bridging across. However, the move was short-lived, before Müller went once more, and Grossman tried to chase in the peloton, before Blackburn closed the gap to Müller.

With a lull in the action following the summit of the Côte de Kigali Golf, Eirini Papadimitriou (Greece) attacked from the back of the bunch with 5km remaining, with Grossman once more keen to chase, before the Spanish squad took control and reeled the Greek rider in.

Grossman made an immediate acceleration on the cobbles of the Côte de Kimihurura, with Paula Ostiz (Spain), Sidney Swierenga (Canada), Chantal Pegolo (Italy), and Giada Silo (Italy) making the front split as the Swiss rider attempted to ride the others off her wheel.

This quintet would battle it out in a sprint finish, but with a chase pack closing in behind, it was a nervous finale; but Ostiz proved to be the fastest and claimed the rainbow jersey.