Gaps were opening up midway up the climb, but Faulkner was part of a trio of riders chasing. Neff was soon caught, with Brand now 30 seconds ahead of the chasing group into the final 4km.

Heading up the ascent, Brand attacked from Neff, clearly giving everything to ensure Faulkner couldn’t reduce the deficit. As they hit the foot of the climb, the duo were 55 seconds ahead of the peloton. The climb up towards Lantsch/Lenz offered a 5.6km rider at 8.2% gradient. Brand, just four seconds behind Faulkner, clearly saw this as her best opportunity to steal the overall victory.īrand and Neff managed to build a 30-second gap heading into the final 10km, with Brand taking the bonus seconds at Albula/Alvra. The pair quickly built up a gap as they powered down the hill, comfortably putting distance between themselves and the chasers. However, a few kilometres later, Lucinda Brand and Jolanda Neff (Switzerland) attacked down the sharper descent. The peloton worked well together in bringing this gap down during the slight descent, eventually catching the breakaway with 20km remaining. With 35km remaining, the quartet out front had 30 seconds on the peloton. Shortly afterwards, Victorie Guilman (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Valerie Demey (Liv Racing Xstra) and Alessandra Keller (Switzerland) attacked, with Amber Kraak (Jumbo-Visma) following suit and bridging across the gap. An attack by Sina Frei (Switzerland) towards the final part of the climb further strung the bunch out on the hill, but it was Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon//Sram) who passed the Wolfgangpass summit first. Multiple riders were unable to maintain the quick pace up the climb, as they were ultimately dropped on the sharper inclines. Heading up the official part of the Wolfgangpass, a 6.6km climb at 6.8%, the peloton started to spread out. The first half of the race passed without any attacks, proving largely uneventful as the peloton stayed intact.

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