The beginning of a brand new season of the Girls’s WorldTour is about to get underway, and it is taking place nearly as distant from the wintery European base of racing as you will get with the annual pilgrimage to Australia for the Girls’s Tour Down Underneath.
The three-stage tour in and round Adelaide is the primary probability riders will get to construct that profitable momentum for a brand new 12 months, however it is usually a kind of races the place there are such a lot of unknowns. Riders are settling into new groups and are at various levels of their rebuild following the low season, some shall be settling in for a primary race with a brand new staff, whereas others shall be grappling with the shock to the system of coming from icy temperatures to the recent Australian mid-summer climate the place stockings full of ice are dolled out by the esky load.
The sphere is made up of a mix of among the high Girls’s WorldTour groups – with SD Worx and Movistar the one lacking gamers from the highest eight – continental groups from Australia and past in addition to Australian nationwide staff.
FDJ SUEZ come into the race with the defending champion Grace Brown, although there are many fierce rivals that shall be making an attempt to make the ochre jersey of the race chief their very own.
The course, too, has modified in nature within the second 12 months of the race on the Girls’s WorldTour degree, with a end on high of Willunga Hill possible tipping the steadiness towards the riders who specialise within the climbs.
With the race to begin the 12 months on the entrance foot about to start, Cyclingnews takes a better take a look at among the riders to look at on the Girls’s Tour Down Underneath from Friday, January 12 to Sunday, January 14.
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the Tour Down Underneath and Girls’s Tour Down Underneath, together with reporting from Australia, breaking information and evaluation. Discover out extra.
For 3 years straight, from 2017 to 2019, Amanda Spratt made the race her personal, stepping as much as the highest of the rostrum after which even when she surrendered ochre in 2020 and 2023, she nonetheless saved her rivals on their toes as an ever-present risk and remained on the general podium.
This can be a race the place the 36-year-old excels, and what’s extra, this 12 months, she is going through as much as it on the again of a robust season. Add to that the summit end, and it appears to be like like a 12 months made for Spratt, who got here second to Brown by a mere ten seconds in 2023.
Spratt shall be fronting up with a robust staff, with 4 of the riders having already blown out the race cobwebs on the Australian Highway Championships, with Lauretta Hanson coming second within the highway race and Brodie Chapman second within the time trial.
Spratt additionally confirmed she is carrying some useful climbing type on the race that circles over Mount Buninyong, coming ever so near staying away in a break of three in Ballarat. The excellent news for Spratt is that in distinction to that first Sunday of racing for the 12 months, the ultimate end line comes on high of the climb, not after it.
Grace Brown hadn’t been within the biking scene lengthy when she first made a mark on the South Australian race in 2018, when the rider, who was then with home squad Holden Crew Gusto, claimed a stage podium and fifth general. It wasn’t till final 12 months that she had an opportunity to higher that consequence as in her earlier appearances on the race, she had been using within the Australian squad backing Amanda Spratt however with a shuffling of the decks, 2023 was a 12 months the place she was unequivocally the staff chief, and he or she delivered the very high step of the rostrum.
This 12 months, nevertheless, with the race ending on the highest of Willunga Hill and few alternatives to construct gaps beforehand, defending the title began to appear to be a more durable ask for the rider who excels on punchy terrain slightly than the lengthy climbs. That’s the terrain the place teammate Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig excels, so, defending champion or not, the staff priorities may properly lean towards the Danish rider.
Nonetheless, who is aware of what may occur if Brown manages to get away in one of many first two levels and put these time trial expertise that simply earned her a fourth nationwide title to good use, carving out a buffer.
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig may even be on the beginning line for a strong FDJ SUEZ staff that additionally consists of Evita Muzic. Together with Grace Brown, this shall be one of many strongest and most well-rounded groups on paper.
The trio of riders shall be well-suited to the parcour within the context of the general classification, as all three shall be contenders for the finale on Willunga Hill. All three riders are additionally tactically savvy, perceive learn the race and are all able to initiating and performing throughout a breakaway.
Look ahead to Uttrup Ludwig to carry her playing cards again for the Willunga Hill, as climbing is her major energy, however it might not be shocking to see a number of riders from FDJ SUEZ on the general podium.
It has been a troublesome run for Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance coverage-Soudal) in latest seasons, however there are all of the indicators that this Australian season might be only the start of a much-anticipated turning of the nook for the Australian, who leapt into the senior ranks in spectacular type in 2019 when she claimed the ladies’s elite/U23 highway race victory on the Nationwide Championships right away as she stepped out of the junior class.
Accidents, the COVID-19 pandemic and well being issues have blighted her path since however hopes are excessive that the younger rider is lastly hitting the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel.
The 23-year-old discovered monumental success within the home alternative race for the Tour Down Underneath, the Santos Pageant of Biking, in 2021, securing victory on the stage that completed on the high of Willunga Hill and general victory too.
Not solely is that key climb within the race clearly one which fits her, however Gigante can be contemporary from claiming the Queen of the Mountain jersey on the Highway Nationwide Championships, with the rider onerous to carry again on the acquainted slopes of Mount Buninyong Rd, and exhibiting that climbing type is properly and actually again.
Ruth Edwards (née Winder) has returned to skilled bike racing after retiring from the game in 2021. She is going to line up along with her new staff, Human Powered Well being, and whereas her type is considerably of an unknown, she is remembered for profitable the general title on the 2020 Tour Down Underneath.
She spent a lot of her time away from highway racing, competing on the gravel scene, profitable final 12 months’s Chequamegon MTB Pageant and Previous Man Winter Rally in addition to taking second-place end on the 105-mile Leadville Path 100 MTB.
All eyes shall be on Edwards as she makes her return to highway racing, and each her energy and expertise will lend properly to the Human Powered Well being staff that additionally strains up with Henrietta Christie, who got here seventh general in final 12 months’s version, and Audrey Cordon Ragot.
The staff may even have two playing cards to play within the general classification, as Edwards shall be joined by Krista Doebel-Hickok. Look ahead to her to shine on the Willunga Hill finale.
The brand new Liv-AlUla-Jayco recruit from New Zealand is a signing the staff might properly put to good use right away. The race had already confirmed pivotal for the 21-year-old, as that’s when the Australian Girls’s World Tour staff first famous her potential. She took on the occasion with LifePlus Wahoo and stepped straight into the highest ten, ending eighth general in 2023.
She then stepped up onto the rostrum on the 1.Professional ranked Navarra Girls’s Elite Basic and completed within the high 20 on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. What’s extra, that got here with an eleventh place on the Col du Tourmalet stage, so Wyllie is clearly a rider with some critical climbing expertise – a priceless asset in an version of the Girls’s Tour Down Underneath, which completed on high of Willunga.
It ought to be intriguing to look at the debut race and season with the staff, as whereas it’s early days for Wyllie, she has already proven a outstanding capacity to rise to a problem.
Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) is a kind of riders who has a robust historical past on the South Australian race, having claimed the home Santos Pageant of Biking within the 12 months of her skilled debut, 2022 – when the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the worldwide race and simply lacking out on the rostrum in 2023.
However identical to final 12 months’s winner, Grace Brown, she too might discover that the Willunga Hill climb performs extra successfully into the arms of others.
Nonetheless, do not anticipate Roseman-Gannon to fade into the background, because the Australian jersey she shall be sporting on her again ought to communicate loudly of her type and, possible confidence, heading into the race.
Her flip of velocity within the rush to the road may undoubtedly turn out to be useful earlier than the Willunga stage because the rider chases her first Girls’s WorldTour victory. Her teammate Alex Manly, too, may simply as simply be out to take a second stage victory on the race after profitable in Uraidla final 12 months, which delivers an additional advantage – their rivals shall be saved guessing.
Neve Bradbury hasn’t had a possibility to race her residence tour earlier than and is clearly coming into the race with some stable type after a tenth place general at an attack-heavy mixed elite/U23 girls’s highway race on the Australian Championships.
What’s extra, that secured her the U23 title as the primary rider in that class over the road, however what was maybe extra spectacular was her cost towards extra. The Canyon-SRAM rider might have been the one under-23 within the lead group, however there was actually no sense that she was simply hanging in for the journey, with an aggressive bridging transfer within the last levels.
The rider, who made her method into the peloton by way of the Zwift Academy, might solely be 21 however already has a stable record of high ten and even high 5 GC finishes at key races, together with the Giro d’Italia Donne and Tour of Scandinavia. The house race with a Willunga end may assist her add to that record or perhaps even step it up one other notch.
UAE Crew ADQ has a number of choices that embrace each Sofia Bertizzolo and Mikayla Harvey at this 12 months’s Tour Down Underneath.
Bertizzolo is in her third season with the staff, and as a robust one-day race and climber, she is well-suited to this 12 months’s route. She had a lot of robust outcomes final 12 months with a stage win on the Tour de Romandie, third at GP de Plouay and La Classique Morbihan, and high 10s in levels on the Tour of Scandinavia and Simac Women Tour.
She may not be among the many top-tier of favourites for the general title, however a three-day race just like the Tour Down Underneath presents a degree of unpredictability that would see a rider a savvy as Bertizzolo profitable levels and touchdown within the high 5 general.
