Having won on the opening stage of the Tour de Suisse Women, Demi Vollering made it two in a row, winning the stage 2 mountain time trial on the same final climb to Villars-sur-Ollon where she took the victory on stage 1.
The SD Worx-Protime rider produced yet another impressive performance to put even more time into all of her rivals in the overall standings. Vollering now leads the general classification by nearly a minute and a half over Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), who finished 18 seconds down in second place on the stage.
Vollering did not have it all her own way during the time trial though, as she was down at both of the intermediate splits. However, she increased her effort on the latter half of the climb, overturning her deficit and showing the dominance that she displayed on the same climb on the opening stage.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The course started at the UCI headquarters in Aigle, with the riders rolling off the ramp into a flat and fast start before the first intermediate split. After the time check, the road began to rise as the climb to Villars-sur-Ollon began.
Many of those who started on the time trial bike opted for a change at the foot of the climb, with mechanics nearly jumping out of moving team cars to grab their riders’ road bikes from the roof while trying to lose as little time as possible.
The riders looked to pace the early part of the climb in order to keep some energy in reserve for the final kilometres, with the second intermediate split coming just after the halfway point on the climb.
The difficulty of the stage was clear to see when the riders reached the finish, with many of them sitting on the ground for a long time in an attempt to get their breath back. It was uphill all the way to the line and the riders left everything out on the road, battling for every second.
There were several early benchmarks set in the first half of the stage, but it was not until Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) entered the hot seat that the competitive times began to be set, as she beat the previous best time by two minutes.
Within a few minutes, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) all set new fastest times, but with Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) still yet to arrive at the finish the stage winner was still in doubt.
Vollering had been down on Longo Borghini at the two intermediate splits, but her effort in the closing kilometres saw her average over 20km/h in the latter half of the climb on some of the steepest slopes, which allowed the Dutch rider to overturn her deficit to the Italian and take the stage victory.
Longo Borghini’s strong result saw her move up to second place in the overall standings ahead of her teammate Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), who finished in sixth place on the stage. Their other teammates Brodie Chapman and Amanda Spratt also moved up in the general classification, putting the team in a good position for the coming stages.
RESULTS: TOUR DE SUISSE WOMEN 2024, STAGE TWO, AIGLE › VILLARS-SUR-OLLON (15.7KM)
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 39:47
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +18s
3. Kim Cadzow (NZl) EF Education-Cannondale, +26s
4. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +47s
5. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM, +1:01
6. Gaia Realini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +1:02
7. Brodie Chapman (Aus) Lidl-Trek, +1:24
8. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Lidl-Trek, +1:50
9. Neve Bradbury (Aus) Canyon-SRAM, +2:19
10. Femke de Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:36
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE TWO
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 2:26:47
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, 1:26
3. Gaia Realini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, 1:28
4. Kim Cadzow (NZl) EF Education-Cannondale, 1:39
5. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, 2:14
6. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM, 2:40
7. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Lidl-Trek, 3:28
8. Brodie Chapman (Aus) Lidl-Trek, 3:41
9. Neve Bradbury (Aus) Canyon-SRAM, 3:45
10. Elise Chabbey (Swi) Canyon-SRAM, 4:13
