Young Blasi takes surprise win in Romandie opener as 30 (!) riders are disqualified before the start

The Tour de Romandie Féminin, as the race is officially called, is three days long and starts with a 4.4-kilometer time trial. No fewer than 30 (!) riders have already been disqualified by the UCI for the time trial due to the controversy over the GPS trackers. Several teams refused to cooperate and decided not to attach the trackers to their bikes.

The race waits for no one, as the saying goes. And even without the five teams, including the Dutch teams Visma | Lease a Bike and Picnic PostNL, this WorldTour race got underway. And that with a tough time trial. The course was far from flat: from the start, the riders would encounter gradients of eight to nine percent, with peaks of ten and thirteen percent. Almost the entire time trial is uphill, except for a few hundred meters in the last kilometer.

Among the disqualified riders were Riejanne Markus, Niamh Fisher-Black, Anna Henderson (all three Lidl-Trek), and Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Antonia Niedermaier (both CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto). It had already been announced that top favorites Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Marlen Reusser (Movistar) would not be able to participate due to illness.

The women with fast times were all fairly close together. Until Urska Zigart (AG InsuranceSoudal) crossed the finish line, the Slovenian, who is also the girlfriend of Tadej Pogacar (who was also present in Switzerland), was an impressive ten seconds faster than the fastest time up to that point. Just as Zigart took her place in the hot seat, Paula Blasi (UAE-ADQ) beat Zigart's time by no less than 17 seconds.

The Dutch rider Yara Kastelijn was unable to get anywhere near Blasi, but did set the provisional third fastest time, 25 seconds behind Blasi. At the same time, Dutch time trial champion Mischa Bredewold set off on her ride against the clock. A minute later, Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez) set off.

Bredewold was nowhere near Blasi's fastest time: the rider from Amersfoort recorded the provisional eighteenth time, 52 seconds behind. Labous managed to get closer, but even the Frenchwoman was unable to beat the fastest time. Vollering's teammate would finish third, giving Blasi, the 22-year-old Spaniard who was promoted from the development team to the WorldTour team this year, her most significant victory to date.