After multiple great performances in World Tour races, Marion Bunel proved her favourite status and won on the mighty Les Karallis climb in Tour de l’Avenir Femmes Stage 1.
After a prologue up a short climb, it was another climbing test for U23 riders. With the route going down for most of the 60 kilometres before Les Karellis (11.19 km, 8.11%), it was going to be a good FTP test for the riders with a good warm-up before it. Nicole Steinmetz spent 623 kilojoules for 1:31h at 9.38 kj/kg/h, making this one of the easiest possible stages.
French superstar Marion Bunel launched an attack with 5.7 km to go, with only prologue winner Lore De Schepper and Isabella Holmgren managing to follow. The trio briefly worked together before Bunel attacked again, dropping both rivals. Holmgren then took on the chase, successfully distancing Schepper. In the end, Bunel secured the victory.
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Marion Bunel performed similarly to Villars-Sur-Ollon in the Tour de Suisse, where she finished 7th against world-class competition. On Les Karellis Bunel averaged 4.97 ᵉW/Kg for 38:45 min. On Villars Sur Ollon it was 5.19 ᵉW/Kg for 27:53 min. When normalized for altitude and for 60 minutes both performances were exact with 495 aSLP, but the Tour de Suisse stage was harder before the climb. Also other teenage superstars finished an extremely high level for their age. Holmgren pushed 4.88 ᵉW/Kg for 39:19 min, while De Schepper finished third with 4.85 ᵉW/Kg. Bego, Steinmetz, Vadillo and Vinke all performed above 4.70 ᵉW/Kg, while Fariba Hashimi after a good performance in Olympics continued with 4.63 ᵉW/Kg for 41:19 min.