CANYON//SRAM Racing finished its 2023 road season with a double podium after the final stage of the Tour de Romandie today in Vernier, Switzerland. Kasia Niewiadoma secured second in the general classification, with teammate Ricarda Bauernfeind finishing sixth overall and winning the Best Young Rider classification. Kasia was also awarded the Super Comabativity Prize.

A challenging 132km parcours outside Geneva provided the peloton countless opportunities to attack. CANYON//SRAM Racing rode aggressively with Neve Bradbury and Elise Chabbey in the first moves of the day. Elise Chabbey, Ricarda, Kasia and Antonia Niedermaier were all attacking in the race’s second half as the finale approached, putting pressure to take the stage win and change the GC standings. Ricarda tried a late move with just 12km remaining and built a lead to 15 seconds as the peloton chased desperately. When Ricarda was caught, Antonia rode brilliantly to control all the moves, keep Kasia in contention for the bonus seconds on the line and help Ricarda move into the white jersey.

The stage was won by Lianne Lippert (MOV) from a sprint of 25 riders, with Kasia in seventh place. Kasia finished second on GC, +6 seconds from Demi Vollering. Ricarda’s sixth place overall at +1:16 was an impressive fourth time that the young rider has been inside the top ten in World Tour stage races in 2023. It was also enough for her to win the Best Young Rider classification.

RIDER REACTIONS

Kasia Niewiadoma: “We had such a fun race today, and we’re beyond happy to finish on the podium in the GC and secure the white jersey with Ricarda! We showed team spirit in today’s stage and commitment to a common goal. We still made mistakes, but we tried to correct the situation in our favour.

I’m happy with my shape to finish on the podium. I learnt a lot, together with my coach this season, how much we can push and how much we have to rest. I’ll take the learnings of when I was in good shape, how long I could hold it, and when I was too cautious. Overall, I’m not sad that the season is ending. It would be good to have more opportunities for our team for me to win, but I’m also looking forward to some proper rest and disconnection from the cycling world.”

Ricarda Bauernfeind: “The stage was quite hard for us as a team because first, we had to chase the group with Elise as it had some important GC contenders. Our main goal was to improve Kasia’s GC podium or, if not, move up, then save the second place.

After the climbs were all done, we were still a small bunch, so we decided to go for attacks. Last evening we talked about finding the right moment for an attack, so I had this in my mind and tried to execute it with around 15km to go. We also wanted to keep the pace high because we knew that Fisher-Black was dropped, and I had a chance to move into the young rider jersey.

Finishing again in the top 10 in the GC in a stage race gives me a lot of confidence and shows what type of rider I am. Of course, it motivates me even more to work during winter on my weaknesses. Winning the young rider classification at this race is a really nice way to finish the great teamwork we showed this weekend.”

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