‘I wasn’t strong enough’ – Femke de Vries after losing the Tour de Suisse yellow jersey to Elisa Longo Borghini

After her stage 1 victory, Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) started stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse Women wearing the yellow jersey of the overall leader. And when the race exploded on the Fanghi climb, she was the only one to have a teammate with her, Sarah Van Dam.

In the end, though, De Vries could not follow the best and lost the overall lead while Van Dam finished second on the day, moving into the white U25 jersey – not all was lost for De Vries, who remains in the lead of the points and mountains classifications.

“You want to keep it, and I felt really good yesterday, so I thought I could keep it, but I was not strong enough today,” said De Vries after losing the yellow jersey to stage 2 winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ).

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The first 80km of the stage were relatively uneventful, giving De Vries the opportunity to experience a day in the leader’s jersey, but in the final, the race lit up when Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) attacked on the penultimate climb.

“I did enjoy it, but not in the end. I followed Kasia on the first climb, and I think I just blew up, and I could not follow anymore on the second climb, which is a bummer. But luckily, Sarah, my teammate, was second today. I’m really proud of her. A bit sad to lose it, but I gave everything I had,” De Vries looked back on the stage.

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Van Dam and De Vries working together in a front group of six against four riders with no support would have made for an interesting final, but unfortunately for the Visma-Lease a Bike duo, De Vries had overestimated herself after a taxing breakaway the day before and could not stay with the group.

“Femke and I were sticking together all day. The goal was to have numbers in the final. Femke was super strong yesterday, and I wanted to support her as best I could. We were together over the first climb, which was awesome, but we got separated cresting the climb,” Van Dam explained the team’s tactic.

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De Vries was happy that her teammate was there to fly the team’s colours when she herself had to let go.

“When [sport director] Jan Boven saw that I was dropped, he told Sarah to just keep going and stay with the first ones. I just dropped. It was clear, and it was good that she stood up like this,” said De Vries.

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