Pauliena Rooijakkers was in attacking mode on stage 1 of Tour de Suisse tonight in Vaduz. The CANYON//SRAM Racing rider attacked after 30 minutes of racing in what was a lightning-fast and challenging circuit. Pauliena finished third on the stage and took valuable seconds in the general classification over many rivals. She also leads the mountain classification. Behind, Soraya Paladin was second in the sprint from the chase group to finish fifth on the stage, Sarah Roy sprinted to ninth place and Neve Bradbury was also in the first chase group, finishing fifteenth.
“We did great as a team tonight,” said Pauliena.
“When we did the recon today we saw already that the stage will be quite hard. The climb was not very long but repeating it every 4km would make it harder. I tried to stay in the front of the peloton and then I attacked. In the beginning, I didn’t expect that we stay away, but I was hoping that the peloton behind would have been reduced under the pressure. After Lucinda (Brand) joined me and Clara (Koppenburg) we worked well and the gap grew. I know Lucinda is fast in the sprint and I just rode all the way until the finish to gain as many seconds as possible on the bunch. Tomorrow’s ITT stage will change the overall classification again so let’s see how it looks going into the hilly stages 3 and 4,” added Pauliena.
Brand won the stage and took the first leader’s jersey. Pauliena is in third at +5 seconds.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Tour de Suisse can be followed by #tourdesuissewomen. A broadcast is available on SRF2, RTS2, RSILA1, GCN and Eurosport with timings below:
Stage 2 | Vaduz – Vaduz | 25.6km | First rider 10:11 | Broadcast 11:10-13:05CEST
Stage 3 | Vaduz – Chur | 124.2km | Race start 14:00 | Broadcast 15:25-17:50CEST
Stage 4 | Chur – Lenz | 98.5km | Race start 14:20 | Broadcast 15:25-17:50CEST