UAE TEAM ADQ

The Italian won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie Féminin in a comeback after 144.1 km in Yverdon-les-Bains.

What a day. What a team. What a super victory today for Sofia Bertizzolo!

The Italian of UAE Team ADQ won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie Féminin in a comeback after 144.1km in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland).

Today the team did a perfect job throughout the day and in the finale led Sofia's sprint to perfection. She caught up with a breakaway rider and by a few centimetres won the first WorldTour race of her career.

Bertizzolo was also the first leader of the Swiss race. After the bunch had come back together in the final kilometres, Austrian champion Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Deceuninck) tried to surprise everyone. The peloton pounced on her with less than 50 metres to go and Sofia Bertizzolo was able to put her wheel in front by a hair's breadth. Third place went to Mischa Bredewold of Team SD Worx.

Sofia Bertizzolo tells us about the day's emotions: "Emotions were sky-high today. Finally came this victory that I had been looking for for so long. When I started for the sprint I thought I would reach second position because there was a lot of space to recover from the breakaway, but then I saw that I was catching up and then my adrenaline kicked in and I believed in it. It's my first WorldTout win and I think today showed how well the team worked and led me perfectly in the finale. I have to say that Switzerland brings me luck. The last time I raced here was nine years ago in Nyon when I won the European Championship among the juniors. Today came this other beautiful victory and I am very happy for me and for the whole team".

Regarding race tactics, Bertizzolo, who gave UAE Team ADQ victory number 12 of the season, added: "We wanted to work on getting Chiara Consonni into the sprint today, but then SD Worx went uphill, there were a few attacks and we split a bit. There were five of us left in front. There was an attack by the Fenix athlete in the last four kilometres. Amialiusik and Ivanchenko managed the margin very well, Silvia gave me a perfect lead out and I found the winning two centimetres. I would say fantastic!".

Tomorrow is scheduled the second stage, the toughest with an uphill finish line from Romont to Torgon of 110.8 km; grand finale on Sunday with the Vernier - Nyon of 131.9 km, along the lines of today's stage.

16/09/2023 - Stage 2 | Romont - Torgon (110.8 km)    

Start: 10:13 - Finish: 13:45 CEST

Live on Eurosport/GCN from 12:35 CEST

17/09/2023 - Stage 3 | Vernier - Nyon (131.9 km)

Start: 11:40 - Finish: 15:15 CEST

Live on Eurosport/GCN from 14:10 CEST

(ph. Sprint Cycling Agency)