Photo: Movistar.
Havana, October 10 (RHC)-- Cuban cyclist Arlenis Sierra ended her participation in the Tour de Romandie with a third place in the last stage.
The Manzanillo-born rider, who had led the first stage of the event, became one of the main protagonists of the closing of the International Cycling Union's world road circuit in this 2022.
This brilliant performance more than corresponded to the privilege of having as teammate - in this difficult competition on Swiss roads - the Olympic and world champion Annemiek Van Vleuten, leader of the Movistar team and queen of the season concluded this Sunday in Geneva.
Sierra won spectacularly on Friday in the first stage, after 134.4 kilometers from the start in Lausanne on a mid-mountain course that she was able to dominate and leave forces to sentence in the finish line the greats like German Liane Lippert (DSM) and Dutch Demi Vollering (SD Worx).
On the second day she pedaled in the lead, but the last part of the 104.5 km course had two first category mountain prizes in store for her. The last of these involved a 14 km climb at almost 2,000 meters above sea level through the Swiss Alps.
Only Annemiek was able to climb to her heart's content, but could not prevent South African Ashleigh Moolman (SD Worx) from pulling 26 seconds ahead of her. Arlenis came in 43rd place as the second best of her squad. She lost the leader's jersey, but not her decision to enjoy the farewell in style.
In the third stage on Sunday, between Fribourg and Geneva (147.6 km), Sierra fought side by side for the podium in a mass sprint and secured third place. Only Poland's Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling) and Russia's Tamara Dronova-Balabolina (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad), who clocked 3:48.37 hours, the time given to the main peloton of 49 riders, were ahead of her.
South African Moolman was part of that large group and kept the jersey she won on the second day. Thus she took her first success of the season, escorted by the Dutch Van Vleuten, who was 30 seconds behind in the general classification. Then came another great rider, the Italian Olympic and world medalist Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), 49 seconds behind.
Arlenis was again the second best Movistar rider, finishing 36th among the 71 elite riders who completed the difficult Swiss route.
It is a superb performance for the Granmense, as she was included twice on the podium of a UCI World Tour race. That is reserved for the exceptional ones.
The 29-year-old Manzanillo rider will enjoy a well-deserved vacation after a brilliant season, in which her club achieved a magnificent 40 victories in the most important races.
