Climbing high on Tour of Scandinavia Queen Stage

The queen stage of this year’s Tour of Scandinavia saw the peloton tackle 150.5km to the highest point of the race at the Norefjell ski resort. The major climb to the finish presented a tough test of almost 9km at 5% with steeper ramps near the base. 

Our Swedish rider, Karin Söderqvist didn’t start today’s stage due to illness/food poisoning picked up over the last few days. However, the stage’s early part played out similar to yesterday’s, with a rider or two going off the front and down the road ahead of the peloton. The peloton ensured that everything was brought back together before the serious climbing began though. With the pace high, the peloton was nervous and a touch of wheels near the back caused a crash. Kaja Rysz was affected but was able to continue. The Polish rider did finish the stage but was just over 20 minutes behind. Kaja visited the hospital in the evening and checks showed that she dislocated her shoulder in the crash, she’ll head home for further checks and to start the recovery process.

Up ahead, our climbers Ella Wyllie and Natalie Grinczer were near the front of the pack. They found themselves in the 3rd group on the road, within sight of the group ahead but never quite able to close up to them again. Both would finish safely in that group, with Ella 25th and Natalie 32nd. 

The day’s result sees Ella still in the top-20 on GC in 20th place. Natalie has moved up 12 places to 23rd as well.