Tour de Romandie Féminin 2024 History
The Tour de Romandie Féminin is a recent addition to the Women’s WorldTour, with only 2 previous editions but it’s given us some nice surprise wins along the way already. The first edition got off to a great start in 2022 with a surprise but well-deserved win by Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. The South African managed to outclimb the then-dominant Annemiek van Vleuten, who’d won all 3 major GC battles in 2022, as well as Elisa Longo Borghini. We also saw one of the real major results from young Swiss rider Petra Stiasny on her home roads. She finished 5th on the queen stage amongst some exalted company.
The first stage had been won by Arlenia Sierra, the Cuban being the quickest finisher in the lead group of nearly 30 riders. The final day was something nearer to a purer sprint but with the biggest sprint names like Wiebes not there, it was Marta Lach who took her first-ever Women’s WorldTour victory in 2022.
The 2023 editions saw Demi Vollering take the top step of the GC in a close battle with Kasia Niewiadoma. The SD Worx star was helped to the finish by the pacing of Marlen Reusser, another Swiss rider impressing in their own home. The opening stage again saw a rider taking the first Women’s WorldTour victory of their career with Sofia Bertizzolo finishing the fastest. The final stage was won by Liane Lippert, who was the first over the line on what was a rolling stage and only 25 riders remained in the front group by the end.
This year’s route is going to be similar fare. There are a couple of rolling stages that should end up in a sprint, although Stage 1 might also reward a well-timed attack. Stage 2 is the one that decides the GC battle though with its summit finish.
Previous Winners
2023
Demi Vollering
2022
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio
2021
Not held
Tour de Romandie Féminin 2024 Stage Profiles
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
TV Coverage
Friday 6rd September – Sunday 8th September 2024
Live on Discovery+/Eurosport/Max
Stage 1: 13:00-16:00
Stage 2: 13:00-16:00
Stage 3: 13:00-16:00
Twitter: #TDR2024
Startlist: FirstCycling
Tour de Romandie Féminin 2024 Contenders
Photo Credit: Getty
SD Worx looks like they’re coming here to take the GC again with Demi Vollering looking to put right her near-miss at the Tour de France Femmes. The team are hedging their bets again with Niamh Fisher-Black in theory the GC leader her as a reward for all the times she hasn’t led during the rest of the year. But it could pan out like it did last year where Fisher-Black was unable to stick with the race-winning move and had to be dropped by the tandem of Vollering and Reusser to ensure they beat Niewiadoma. Lotte Kopecky will also be tested to see if she can light up the GC as well as take sprints here. In a previous time, the sprint stages would be all for her but there could be some inter-team rivalry with one eye on the future. Blanka Vas has a chance to take the sprints as well but it depends on if Lotte wants them or if Vas will be able to do something similar to her Tour de France Femmes stage victory this year.
Canyon SRAM won’t be bringing Kasia this year but will see if Neve Bradbury can recreate that Blockhaus form against the big names on SD Worx. The Aussie has a chance to lay a big marker down for next season on Stage 2 after a Tour spent supporting Kasia. Elise Chabbey will no doubt aim for the Queen of the Mountains in her own race, she’s had an up-and-down second half of the season with injuries and crashes but will be gearing up for a home Worlds soon as well. Antonia Niedermaier is another rider who’s been quiet since the Giro d’Italia Women but at her best can either challenge the climbers or attack on one of the other stages to go clear. Chloe Dygert and Soraya Paladin will cover the sprints. Dygert is likelier to win out of the pair, with Paladin on an incredible run of WWT podiums without a WWT win.
The fastest rider in a sprint on paper here is Elisa Balsamo. The Lidl-Trek rider is still slightly behind the curve in her injury-affected season, but 4th at Classic Lorient Agglomération was encouraged nevertheless. There’s a chance for a stage win here and maybe her first win since March. Gaia Realini is the obvious GC threat and will be backed to make the difference for the team on Stage 2 with the major summit finish. 7th at the Giro and 5th at the Tour are solid results but there are questions about whether she will reach the truly top-tier of climbers which was expected of her a year or so ago. Shirin van Anrooij will also be a useful card to play across all of the stages. She will potentially support Realini on the major climb but there will be opportunities elsewhere for Van Anrooij too.
FDJ-Suez looks set to restart their Vuelta Femenina gameplan here with Evita Muzic. She came back from a slow start on the Dutch stage of the Tour de France Femmes to finish 4th in GC, a great ride and shoes that she’s really knocking on the door of moving up a level now. With Grace Brown here, I’m expecting to see the Aussie do one of the long mountain pulls (similar to a Reusser pull) before dropping off Muzic in a great spot with only a few rivals to contend with. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig can support in that too, with maybe a challenge at the end of the opening stage for a win. She’s very much been playing catch-up all season, with some good results like the Giro but definitely quieter than normal. Vittoria Guazzini might have a good shout at doing well on the final day. She’s been a little tough to predict at times but when she’s firing we see wins like Le Samyn and the Tour des Pyrenées. She will also be high in confidence after securing Olympic gold in the madison in Paris.
Photo Credit: ASO-Charly Lopez The 2021 winner Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio returns for the first time since the Olympics as the South African is on the comeback trail. Another rider who hasn’t had a smooth 2024, she may be fit and ready for a GC charge but may also end up riding in support of her teammate Sarah Gigante. The Aussie finished 7th in the Tour de France Femmes, clawing back time on her rivals gradually as the road started to go uphill towards the end of the week. She will be looking to back herself on Stage 2 here and hopefully stay out of trouble on the opening and closing stages. Justine Ghekiere is also a nice wildcard to have after her polka dot jersey victory. We’ve seen a few times over the years that the Belgian is able to get herself clear when a breakaway or attack can win.
Cédrine Kerbaol is going well at the moment for Ceratizit-WNT. The French rider won a stage of the Tour de France Femmes, secured a great 6th place in GC there before heading to Plouay to finish 9th at Classic Lorient Agglomération. She topped that this weekend with a time trial win in the rain in Switzerland coming into this race at the Chrono “Roland bouge!”. She’s the main focus for the team here.
The question for Fenix-Deceuninck is will Pauliena Rooijakkers be able to continue her strong form this season into the Tour de Romandie Féminin? After 4th in GC at the Giro, Rooijakkers was able to take the final step of the podium at the Tour de France Femmes in impressive fashion. She will suit the pure climb here and seems to be improving on her tendency to always ride at the back of the peloton, which should help keep her out of trouble. Another rider guilty of that is her teammate Petra Stiasny who is a great pure climber but can lose time on easier stages as the peloton yo-yos. She was 5th on the major climbing stage of this race in 2022 and hopefully can match that to stay with Rooijakkers. Flora Perkins will also be one to watch on the flatter stages, she was 11th at the Grote Prijs Beerens at the weekend but the tougher parcours here on Stages 1 + 3 will suit her better than that flat Belgian race.
Liv-AlUla-Jayco should be behind Mavi Garcia but they’ve also brought a line-up full of potential climbers who might also want their own good result. It didn’t particularly work out for Garcia at the Tour de France Femmes, only finishing 26th overall, which was a shame after good form going into it with 6th at the Olympics on a course that in theory wasn’t ideally suited to her. There’s always a chance for a top-5 in GC for the Spanish rider. Silke Smulders and Caroline Andersson have always seemed to be on the cusp of a really major result this year, with Smulders in particular just starting to show what she can do. She was consistent at the Tour, finishing ahead of Garcia in 21st and has regularly finished GC and stages just outside of the top-10 this year. For Andersson, it’s a chance to show what she can do on the climbs as well. You also can’t forget the likes of Ella Wyllie and Urska Zigart either. Wyllie hasn’t raced for 2 months since the Giro but before then was 10th at Itzulia and 9th at Burgos during Spain month. Zigart is often riding in support was finished 12th in GC at the Giro a couple of weeks ago and 9th in the Tour de Suisse. Ingvild Gåskjenn should get the nod for the flatter stages where she can use her all-rounder ability to get over the climbs and contest. The earlier season top-5s at the Vuelta are hopefully a result she can aim for here.
Liane Lippert is starting to look something like back to her best again after a tough 2024. 3rd at Classic Lorient Agglomération a couple of weeks ago matched a couple of Tour de France Femmes stage 3rds and paired nicely with her Giro d’Italia stage win. The first stage feels like the best chance for her to impress with a decent kicker heading to the finish line.
Noemi Rüegg is here with the Swiss National team and so should get a chance to go for the sprints, maybe on Stage 1 as well as the final stage. She was 7th at the Olympics and took 5th on one of the rolling terrain stages of the Tour de France Femmes to show her recent form. On home roads, she’s one of the best chances for a Swiss victory at the Tour de Romandie Féminin.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL will be backing Juliette Labous for the GC battle here. Set to leave the team at the end of the season, this is one of the best chances to sign off with a big result. She’s been consistently good all year, with 5th in GC at the Tour de Suisse and the Giro d’Italia Women before being 9th at the Tour de France Femmes. She probably would’ve wanted that last result to be higher, with time lost on the final day up to Alpe d’Huez. Josie Nelson should get the nod for the final day too (and maybe the opener), after a solid Tour de l’Avenir. Not necessarily a climber, she was still 5th on the Colle delle Finestre and 7th Overall there. She was 4th on a stage at Itzulia and something like that could be possible here too.
Visma | Lease a Bike should go with Riejanne Markus for the GC, especially to help move on from the Tour de France Femmes which didn’t go to plan for the Dutch rider despite strong form going into it. She was unwell when the major climbs started and that saw her fall down the general classification standings. Back to 100%, there should be a top-10 for her here. There are some interesting options for the stages as well. Maud Oudeman was 11th at the Tour de l’Avenir with an impressive 7th on the Colle delle Finestre too. She’s been good on rolling terrain this season and could get a result here. It’s similar for Rosita Reijnhout who was particularly strong earlier on this season on all sorts of terrain. And there’s always the attacking option of Eva van Agt who took 5th at the Egmont Cycling Race recently.
Erica Magnaldi had a pretty good Tour de France Femmes, starting slowly but rising up to 12th in GC by the end of the race. That was better than her Giro which had a similar progression but finished a couple of places lower at the end. The potential is always there for a really strong climb but Magnaldi should be in or just outside the bottom end of the top-10 in GC. Eleonora Gasparrini feels like a shout for a stage win with the Italian a particularly good hilly sprinter type. It’ll be tough if Kopecky is going for the same stages but Gasparrini was 6th at the Classic Lorient Agglomération to show some of her recent form. Normally Sofia Bertizzolo would be a threat too but the 2024 season has been tough for the Italian with lots of DNFs and lower-than-normal results for her. Gasparrini would be the one to back of that rider type on UAE Team ADQ here.
Katrine Aalerud should be the Uno-X GC option here. She was going really well at the start of the Giro d’Italia Women, only to then have a horrible day out on the Blockhaus stage which saw her fall down the GC standings from the top-10 to 33rd by the end of the race. She’s a tier or two below the top climbers but should be able to slot in somewhere in the top 15 with a good ride. Solbjørk Minke Anderson and Mie Bjørndal Ottestad will also be riders to watch on the team. They have both done really well in non-WWT races this season and it feels like the WWT breakthrough is only just around the corner for them.
Tour de Romandie Féminin 2024 Outsiders
It’s been really hard to pick what level Tamara Dronova is at this season. There are good results at Thüringen Ladies Tour and Vuelta Burgos mixed in with DNFs at races which should’ve gone better. The Tour de France Femmes is a recent example but Itzulia and the Vuelta Andalucia also are too. At her best, there are finishes here which should suit her for the top-10, especially with her team on a constant UCI points hunt.
Julie Bego started her first Elites season really well and only really struggled in the heat at the Giro d’Italia Women. She bounced back from that result with 5th in GC at the Tour de l’Avenir riding in support of the eventual winner Marion Bunel. She can quietly impress on all of the stages and see where she fits in at the WWT level towards of end of her first pro year.
It’s a similar case for Giada Borghesi of Human Powered Health. She had to leave the Giro d’Italia Women early on the Blockhaus stage but had already secured a nice 6th place on one of the stages. She was a mid-season signing after being really impressive in the non-WWT calendar whilst racing for the smaller Italian team BTC City Ljubljana Zhiraf Ambedo. She took her first UCI win at the Giro Mediterraneo in Rosa and was consistently finishing in the top-10 in that part of the year.
Top 3 Prediction
- Demi Vollering
- Neve Bradbury
- Lotte Kopecky
