Women’s Tour de Romandie 2022 Race Preview

Canyon SRAM come into the Tour de Romandie with a deep line-up for this time of year. They’ll be led by Kasia Niewiadoma who looked very on form at the Worlds, twice being part of the front group. She will hope to bring the same form that saw her finish on the Tour de France Femmes podium and the summit finish on Thyon 2000 gives her a chance. I like Elise Chabbey for an attacking ride here. Stages 1 and 3 give a decent platform and I fully expect her to go for another Queen of the Mountains jersey on home roads. Soraya Paladin probably represents their sprint option, especially on Stage 1 which will be a hard day. Pauliena Rooijakkers and Neve Bradbury will probably assist Niewiadoma here but Rooijakkers was 3rd at the Tour de Suisse and Bradbury 5th at the Tour of Scandinavia. Both are strong wildcard options.

Marta Cavalli did well on her comeback from that big injury at the Tour de France Femmes. She was 6th at the GIro dell’Emilia before being a bit quieter at Tre Valli Varesine. She was in such good form before but you’d have to think that she won’t quite be on par with the major players just yet. Her teammate Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig should therefore be the leader and after 5th at the Ceratizit Challenge and the World Championships, she’s likely to get a similar result at the Tour de Romandie.

It’s tough to not pick Annemiek van Vleuten here. She won the World Championships despite a fracture in her elbow and with more time to recover, surely she will be back to the powerful, rocking the bike out of the saddle Van Vleuten that we know and love. Expect her to attack early on the Thyon 2000 stage. Teammate Arlenis Sierra should get the nod on Stages 1 and 3. Stage 1 in particular screams out as a Sierra stage. Tough enough to drop the pure sprinters, Sierra should still be there at the end to contest the win.

We get the last outing of the Demi Vollering and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio partnership for SD Worx. It hasn’t been a particularly successful duo this year, although some of the results would be more than fine for others. A combination of mixed goals and crashes means we haven’t see them ride together too often in this second half of the season. Vollering has recently had Covid but seems to be in good nick from her social media updates, it does throw a wildcard into the mix however. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio was decent at the World Champs in 11th despite not having as much support as others. If she can stay out of trouble, she will be keen to finish her time at SD Worx with a spark.

The double winner from the last week Elisa Longo Borghini clearly has some strong end of season form. She took wins at the Giro dell’Emilia and Tre Valli Varesine winning in an uphill sprint and then a solid solo break. I’ve tipped her for 3rd but with Vollering recently having Covid, I can see the Italian finishing 2nd easily enough. I don’t think she will have enough to beat Van Vleuten though. Special mention for Audrey Cordon-Ragot, this is her first race since suffering a stroke that saw her unable to participate in the World Championships. Her quick return to racing is a great sight to see.