What happened to Femke de Vries, Kasia Niewiadoma and Marlen Reusser at Tour de Suisse stage 2?

The second stage of the women’s Tour of Switzerland did not disappoint on Thursday. Femke de Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike) took the lead on Wednesday in Sondrio, but had to give it up a day later in Locarno. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) now took control.

De Vries initially had an answer to an acceleration from Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM), but eventually had to let go. The day after her first professional victory, she lost the lead in the general classification in that way, but after the finish she did so with a smile at CyclingProNet.

“I enjoyed it, but I was blown. On the second climb I could not follow anymore and that was frustrating, but fortunately my team-mate Sarah (Van Dam, ed.) was second. I am very proud of her,” said De Vries. “I just could not follow any more, but it is what it is. If you have that jersey, you want to keep it. But I was not strong enough,” she said honestly.

Longo Borghini proved to be the strongest on that second climb in the finale, but she was not convinced of that herself at first. “I did not really understand why Kasia did not come with me. When I looked back, I saw that she was struggling. So then I accelerated again. I am very happy that I can win here, because it is not far from where I live.”

Niewiadoma confirmed that version to CyclingProNet. “It was a good day to test the legs, so that was the plan. I did that, but I had a very hard time with the heat. I could not cool myself down properly because it was really hot,” said the Pole. In Locarno, the mercury rose above 30 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

Even so, the Canyon//SRAM rider ended up behind Longo Borghini together with Marlen Reusser and Van Dam, until the first two rode the wrong way. “You’re riding flat out, so there is also no time to think: what is actually happening here? Marlen suddenly said: we’ve gone the wrong way, but then there is not much you can do about it. It was a matter of limiting the damage.”

Van Dam did see it correctly and therefore finished 15 seconds ahead of Reusser and Niewiadoma. “When I saw that they rode the wrong way, I just went full gas to the finish. I saw it on my Garmin, but that was also a coincidence. I feel for them too,” said the Canadian of Visma | Lease a Bike, who is now third.