A momentary wave of pure, unfiltered delight spread across Awen Roberts’ face as she was told of her 15th place in the brutal final stage of the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées – just minutes after she’d swerved to a halt beyond the line, pain etched dramatically across her open mouth.

It was an excellent result for the 20-year-old Welsh rider, who is steadily rebuilding form and confidence after crashing during her second race day of the season in mid-February – an incident that left her with fractured ribs and a longer road back than expected.

A 24th at Grand Prix du Morbihan on her return to racing in May, and a 19th on stage 1 of the recent Volta Ciclista Catalunya Femenina, were valuable benchmarks as she steadily worked her way back towards the sharp end of racing.

Below is Awen’s reaction at the finish – shared after taking a moment to decompress and temper her initial enthusiasm, true to her humble personality:

“After a hard stage, I’m pretty happy with that result. I think I burned a match when I dropped my chain [on a climb midway through], but I knew I had to chase. After a tough day, a top 15 is quite decent.”

The opening two stages had been challenging for CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto Generation. Jule Märkl led the team home in 25th under sweltering temperatures on stage 1, and Awen suffered a puncture at a critical moment during Saturday’s summit finish on the Col du Soulor – derailing her general classification ambitions.

Sunday’s 127km finale was anything but processional, through both terrain and tactics, with an unabating series of short, punchy climbs snaking through the Pyrenean foothills. The ultimate 2.4km ascent included ramps of over 15%, with just 10km from the summit to the longed-for finish in Pau. Awen ultimately 1:08 behind solo victor Brodie Chapman (UAD), sitting in one of the many peloton fragments that couldn’t quite regroup after the late-day climb.

“It was really aggressive racing today – there were attacks literally every five seconds, so it was about picking and choosing which ones to follow. The terrain was constantly up and down, and the climbs were steep – they just burn everything in your legs. In the end, we can be proud of how we raced as a team. We had some bad luck with two of the girls crashing, so it became about picking ourselves up and staying in it,” said Awen.

Asked what the result meant to her, Awen remained characteristically modest. However, for a young rider like her, a top 15 in a race of this calibre is a significant milestone when getting back into the groove of racing – one that can easily be overlooked in a peloton stacked with seasoned riders and glittering palmarès. 

“Especially on a hard course, a result like this does give you a lift. We needed that after the last two days. You always want more, but this was a pretty strong field. With each race, I’m getting the feel of the peloton again, but every race is different. At the start of this tour, communication wasn’t great – so I’ve been working on that, and also trying not to panic when things don’t go right. Hopefully, I can go into future races with more confidence, no matter the event, and keep building – with the team, too. If we grow together, I know there’s a good result in us.”

Awen and the Generation team will now take a couple of well-earned easy days before gearing up for their third consecutive three-day stage race. The next stop: La Volta Ciclista Femenina a Osona, a three-day race from 20–22 June. It’s hosted by the Catalan cycling federation in the Osona region, just an hour from the team base in Girona.