The first edition of the Tour de Suisse Women ended in the best possible way for Alé BTC Ljubljana team. Today, in the second and last stage, 97 km with start and finish in Frauenfeld, arrived a beautiful victory for the Italian Marta Bastianelli.
Entering the decisive breakaway of nine riders that decided the race, Bastianelli made the most of her fast sprint and in the decisive sprint overtook the Czech Tereza Neumanova (Women Cycling Team) and Hannah Barnes (Canyon SRAM).
The day also ends with the satisfaction of the third place in the final general classification of the Tour de Suisse Women of the Swiss Marlen Reusser who, with the support of the team, defended the position conquered yesterday in the first stage, gaining a place of great prestige in her homeland.
Marta Bastianelli said: “I needed to win after so long, I was missing the victory. In the first part of the race I remained covered in the group to save energy. Then I joined the breakaway group, we worked well together and I was confident that I could win. I’m very happy because I feel better physically now. I have to thank the team and everyone who never stopped believing in me”.
“We have studied well the tactics of this stage and it has rewarded us – is the comment of team manager Fortunato Lacquaniti – I told to the girls that if Trek-Segafredo had won the two intermediate sprints to bring Deignan in leader jersey then they would have left space to the breakaway. And so it happened. Marta Bastianelli did well to get into the right breakaway. There was Barnes in the bunch and she was very fast, but Marta was the strongest today and she went for a victory that she had been missing for too long. With Reusser in third place in the final classification and Guderzo in eighth we end with some great results in this very important race. The team rode very well both yesterday and today and we are fully satisfied”.
(ph. Tour de Suisse)