On the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie-Féminin, all the pieces seemed to fit together for SD Volks Pro Time, but when it came down to the finish, world champion Lotte Kepcky was not fast enough to beat Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and was forced to settle for second place in Lausanne.

“I always want to win! Of course, it's a little disappointing when you come so close to missing out on a win. On the other hand, I think we had a very solid race today, so we can go into tomorrow's stage with a lot of confidence,” said SD Works sport director Danny Stamm after the stage.

After an undulating stage in which the team's Christine Majerus and Femke Marx were part of a breakaway group, defending overall champion Demi Vollaring had a near-perfect lead-out on Kopecký on the final climb to the finish, but was He was one step short of winning the race.

According to Stam, Vollaring's goal was to reduce the lead pack to a manageable size on the final climb and give Kopecký a chance to win.

“The plan today was to set a high pace on the final climb to make the lead group as thin as possible and sprint with Lotte Kopecký. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]