Canyon SRAM Generation made an encouraging start to the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, tackling both their first-ever team time trial and a short, aggressive afternoon road stage in Artiguelouve, France.
The day opened with a 27.4km team time trial, where the squad faced the added challenge of starting with just four riders – Ricarda Bauernfeind, Agua Marina Espinola Salinas, Valentine Nzayisenga and Olivia Shililifa. They finished 17th, with the official time gaps between each team set at five seconds, putting them 1:20 down on GC heading into the afternoon stage.
Sport director Adam Szabó was upbeat about the debut effort. “We had a really good cohesion for our first-ever TTT. The first 16km were very fast, and the final was more hilly and technical. Racing with four riders was a challenge, but all in all, we can be proud of our effort. It was a really good learning experience for the whole team.”
Bauernfeind said the plan in the TTT was to maintain a strong, steady pace and keep the team together. “The main focus was to find a good rhythm, not drop the speed and to come together to the finish line. That meant we went into the afternoon road stage still feeling quite good.”
The second part of the day saw the peloton take on a short but intense 76.7km route around Pau, with more than 900m of climbing. Bauernfeind made it into a six-rider breakaway on the second climb, a move that proved decisive. “At first, I thought the peloton would catch us, but we were quite fast in the downhill and then could work well together to keep a gap,” she explained. “My focus was to make it to the finish line in this smaller group to move up in the GC. I couldn’t close the gap when the stage winner attacked on the final climb with 1km to go. I gave everything, and I’m really happy about the final result. Second on the stage and moving up on GC.”
Her performance moved her to fifth overall, 1:26 behind new leader Kristel Doebel-Hickock, while also giving her a 2:40 lead in the Best Young Rider classification. Espinola Salinas and Nzayisenga also improved their GC positions ahead of stage two.
