Ricarda Bauernfeind’s motto of ‘never give up in a stage race’ brought the CANYON//SRAM Generation rider to third in the overall and victory in the best young rider classification after today’s final stage of Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées in Lourdes, France.

After the opening team time trial stage, Ricarda and her teammates were placed at +1:20 in the overall.

“It was a nice tour that suited the whole team because there were a lot of climbs,” explained Ricarda.

“Because of the TTT, we weren‘t focusing so much on the GC but individual stages. That makes us even happier that we could achieve 3rd and 12th place in GC!” said Bauernfeind referring to her and teammate Agua Marina Espinola Salinas overall place.

“Never give up in a stage race! Of course, we have a lot of things to improve in the TTT, but I think we raced well together to make it to the finish. That was a great team effort,” said Ricarda.

After finishing second in the afternoon stage 1b on Friday and again on the queen stage 2, Ricarda jumped onto the GC podium.

“The mountain-top stage we enjoyed the most! It was nice to do some very long climbs in a race. It was a new experience for all of us, and we had some success. It’s very special to get third overall,” added Ricarda.

For Espinola Salinas, a strong performance in the hilly stage race comes on the back of her first UCI top ten in Europe at Princess Anna Vasa Tour last weekend when she took ninth in the ITT stage to finish the tour in eighth overall.

“I’m in the best moment of my career, and I’m very grateful and happy,” said Agua Marina.

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