09.07.2024 World-Tour, News, Race news

NEVE AND ANTONIA PASS THE FIRST MOUNTAIN TEST AT THE GIRO

Young riders Neve Bradbury and Antonia Niedermaier passed the first mountain test at the Giro d’Italia today with flying colours. The CANYON//SRAM Racing duo finished seventh and ninth on the stage. Antonia jumped to fourth overall, extending her lead in the Best Young Rider classification. CANYON//SRAM Racing teammate Neve is now second in the Maglia Bianca classification.

The 110km stage held the first serious climb of this year’s race with a ten-kilometre climb and summit finish at Toano. CANYON//SRAM Racing set a fierce pace on the bottom slopes, first with Soraya Paladin before Elise Chabbey took over. As riders in the leading group dropped one by one, Neve and Antonia climbed superbly. A late attack by Mavi Garcia (JAY) and Niamh Fisher-Black (SDW) gave the latter the stage win, with Neve and Antonia crossing the line a handful of seconds later. Antonia is fourth in the general classification at +59 seconds, and Neve moved to twelfth overall at +1:55.

RIDER REACTIONS

Antonia Niedermaier: “The beginning of the stage was relatively easy, but it was clear that it was all about the final climb. We had a good position at the start of the climb thanks to our teammates. Soraya and Elise’s pace was strong, putting Neve and myself in a good position. We wanted the stage win, but we’re still happy with today’s stage.

I’m happy to move up to fourth place in the overall. The strong time trial gives me an advantage to play with. We have another day in the white jersey and our team wants to keep it and keep moving up in the GC.”

Neve Bradbury: “We planned to make a hard pace on the final climb, and we did that. Unfortunately, we lost Alice (Towers) to a crash just at the bottom of the climb, but Soraya and Elise did massive pulls to shred the peloton. Our group became smaller again when Mavi Garcia took up the pace until it flattened. We missed the attacks, and I tried to go myself at about 1km to go, but then I felt a bit cooked on the last steep part. We’re pretty pleased with today and look forward to stage four.”