VN news ticker: Lizzie Deignan wins GC at Tour de Suisse, Tom Dumoulin eyes Olympic TT test in Switzerland
Here's the news making headlines for Sunday, June 6.
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Lizzie Deignan wins GC, Marta Bastianelli takes final stage at Tour de Suisse
Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) won the two-day Tour de Suisse through the canny accumulation of bonus seconds Sunday.
The Brit and her Trek-Segafredo team battled for the two intermediate sprints of Sunday’s stage to scoop enough bonuses to reverse the overnight GC lead of Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), who won stage 1.
What emotions: @lizziedeignan (@TrekSegafredo ) wins the TdS Women @Genesis_Europe @Vaudoise_fr @Vaudoise_de @VelonCC pic.twitter.com/Gey3hhmY5u
— Tour de Suisse (@tds) June 6, 2021
Deignan finished in the bunch behind the reduced sprint for the final stage of the race, won by Marta Bastianelli (Alé-BTC).
Bastianelli won from a 10-rider kick, coming around the early acceleration of Tereza Neumanova to claim her first win in 16 months.
Chabbey finished in the peloton after losing out to Deignan in the scrap for the intermediate sprints. She finished second overall while Marlen Reusser (Alé-BTC) took third to seal a Swiss one-two on the final podium.
Finish of the 2nd stage of the TdSW. The winner is Marta Bastanelli (ITA/ALE)! pic.twitter.com/XZriGf3JxF
— Tour de Suisse (@tds) June 6, 2021
Tom Dumoulin eyes Olympic TT test at Tour de Suisse
The road to Olympic gold runs through Switzerland for Tom Dumoulin.
The Dutchman is making a highly anticipated return from a six-month race hiatus at the Tour de Suisse on Sunday, where he plans to use the race’s two TTs as a gauge of form ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
“I want to test myself in the two time trials and especially gain some hardness in this tough race,” Dumoulin told AD.nl.
“It will hurt sometimes, but it doesn’t matter. I need that and it makes me better. I’m definitely not going to ride for GC – I’m not going to kill myself.”
Dumoulin sees the opening 11-kilometer blast through Frauenfeld and hilly 23km time trial on stage 7 next weekend as the opportunity to explore what needs fine-tuning ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. The 30-year-old is hoping to go one better at the Games this summer after taking second-place behind Fabian Cancellara in Rio in 2016.
After six months away from racing to “refind his love for the sport,” Dumoulin also sees the eight-stage Swiss race as a launchpad back to competitiveness.
“I honestly don’t know [how I will perform],” he said. “The training sessions feel very good, also on the time trial bike. In a time trial it’s often about freshness, which could be to my advantage. I may not be among the very best, but I won’t be among the worst either.
“The plan is mainly to enjoy this week that I’m back. I take each day as it comes. In the time trials I will give everything. That’s going to help me get to Tokyo. What should I work on? What do I need to improve? It’s going to be a meaningful week.”
