Second in the final standings of the 2024 Tour de l’Avenir behind France’s Marion Bunel, Canada’s Isabella Holmgren seems ready to take her game to the next level this year.
At least, that’s what her performance in the very short (3 km) but extremely difficult prologue climb to Tignes 1800 suggests, not only because of her victory, which earned her the first CIC Yellow Jersey, but even more so because of the significant gaps she has already opened up.
The 20-year-old Canadian, with her slender legs and climber’s physique, scored a clear victory with a relatively large margin over this distance: 17 seconds ahead of Italy’s Eleonora Ciabocco and Australia’s Talia Appleton.
Two French women are in the top 10: Marion Bunel, last year’s winner (7th), and Julie Bego (8th), but with a gap of more than half a minute.
The first stage takes the 96 competitors from Saint-Vulbas (Ain) to Saint-Galmier (Loire) on a hilly 129.8 km course.
