History will record the name of Antonia Niedermaier as the first to don the yellow jersey in the brand new Tour de l’Avenir for women, open as it is for boys to U23 riders.
It’s a logical result, given that the young German rider, aged 20, is the world time trial champion in her category and it was at an average speed of 44.5 kph that she covered the 14.8 km of this inaugural time trial, which was nonetheless very hilly around Saint-Vallier (Saone-et-Loire), where three competitors had already missed the deadline.
Antonia Niedermaier, who also won a stage in the women’s Giro d’Italia, beat Britain’s Anna Shackley by 13 seconds, Dutch European champion Shirin Van Anrooij, one of the big names in the category, by 22 seconds and French rider Cedrine Kerbaol, the best young rider in the last Tour de France for women, by 39 seconds.
None of this bodes well for what’s to come, however, as the U23 women, like the boys, will have to contend with the mountains over the final two days of the five-day event. And this first edition of the Tour de l’Avenir for women should go some way towards establishing the kind of benchmark that the women’s U23s have so far lacked in an event of this stature.
Stage 2 takes the peloton from Charolles to Louhans-Chateaurenaud, covering 91.8km on the initially rough roads of the Saone-et-Loire region, before easing off in the final stages.
