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ADELAIDE, Australia (CT) – The four-day Santos Women’s Tour Down Under has wrapped up with Chloe Hosking (Ale-Cipollini) taking the win in the final stage, while Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) recovered from a mid-race crash to keep her grip on the overall.
The sprinters stages bookended the four-day tour, with the final 46 kilometre street circuit around the Adelaide being the opportunity riders like Gorgia Bronzini (Cylance Cycling), Hosking and Annette Edmondson (Wiggle High5) have been holding out for through the cross winds and climbs of Stages 2 and 3.
The 20 lap race started off with a chance for retiring pro racer Carlee Taylor (Holden Team Gusto) to have some time out the front in her last UCI classified race. But inevitably the home-town rider was swallowed back in to the bunch before the first sprint point, as ceremonial laps weren’t an option when there was a sprint jersey up for grabs.
The first intermediate sprint was taken by Katrin Garfoot (UniSA-Australia) and that set the pattern for the rest of the race as she kept charging out the front and soaking up those points.
However, the second of four intermediate sprints threatened to unravel the ochre jersey race. As riders were positioning for it there was a big crash that took down about 15. That included Stage 1 winner Edmondson and Spratt. The two-time Australian road champion went down solidly and was clearly rattled but got up and kept riding. Teammate Jessica Allen shepherded Spratt back into the field and the squad rallied to calm her frayed nerves. In no time at all she was moving up toward the front in what looked like a statement to say I’m back.
The pace then predictably wound up in the final laps, with Ale-Cipollini working out the front as they held one of the top favourites in their ranks, Hosking. And she delivered. Australia’s top ranked cyclist Hosking beat two-time world champion Bronzini to the line and Edmondson rolled through in third.
Spratt came through with the bunch to win the overall for a second year and deliver the team a much needed win on home soil. The 30-year-old rider all but wrapped up the overall classification of the tour on Stage 3, getting a considerable gap on most of the field in a breakaway with Lauren Stephens (Cylance). Spratt then distanced Stephens on the final climb to win on a stage which she had earmarked on her December reconnaissance of the course.
It may sound like a case of the same old story – Mitchelton-Scott winning the Santos Women’s Tour just like they do every year – but it was far from a repeat of past victories. This year Australia’s only UCI listed team came into the race with fiercer competition than ever before, particularly with a talent packed UniSA-Australia team to contend with. It would probably be fair to say there was also more at stake than ever.
With the UCI ranking shifting up to 2.1 came a tripling of the points on offer and Mitchelton-Scott also was due for an Aussie win. The team walked away from Australia’s FedUni Road National Championships without an elite title, after having taken the clean sweep in 2017.
Spratt also won the Queen of the Mountain classification, while Garfoot’s clean sweep of the intermediate sprints meant she walked away with the sprinters jersey and Grace Anderson (Vantage New Zealand National Team) secured the young riders jersey.
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- Chilling out before the start.
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- The beginning of the finale.
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- The bubbly Adelaide local, Carlee Taylor, had her farewell.
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- Then the pace picked up as the first sprint points approached. “I couldn’t really see Nettie (Edmondson) going for it in the first one,” said Garfoot. “We thought okay let’s just keep on hunting the jersey. So we lined it up for every of the intermediate sprints and it worked out well and then we could rest for the final sprint which was not our game. It was a good race for us.”
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- UniSA then kept working to get Garfoot in position for those sprints.
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- The leader’s ochre jersey tucked in the peloton.
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- In the run up to one of the sprints, riders came tumbling down and Spratt was among them. There was a moment there where it looked like the win could slip through her fingers, but with the calm of the team around her she got through. “It wasn’t ideal but the team didn’t panic. I think I was panicked more than anyone else,” said Spratt. “Jess stopped straight away, Annemiek stopped for me, Gene (team DS) was trying to calm me down. Everyone around me was really calm so that really helped.”
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- A bike change was needed.
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- Barbara Guarischi (Team Virtu).
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- Stage 4 winner Chloe Hosking (Ale Cipollini) with Bronzini second and Edmondson third.
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- In fourth it was Abigail van Twisk (Trek-Drops) who kept getting up near the pointy end of the sprints. “The Cipollini girls were lining up out the front and it was quite a fight for their wheel,” said van Twisk.
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- The stage winner. “It’s always nice to get the first win ticked off and then hopefully they just come rolling in like a snowball.,” said Hosking.
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- Second place on the overall category for Stephens, who stepped on the podium amid the loud cheers of her teammates who had made sure they were right in pole position in front of the stage.
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- Third overall and the sprint jersey for Garfoot.
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- And Amanda Spratt rides away with the overall win for a second year. “I’m just so proud of the whole team this week,” said Spratt. “I think we’ve just gone up a level in terms of the way we’re working together on the road and the plans we have been able to execute.” “It’s just been really exciting to be a part of and certainly this is something that I was targeting and I’m really happy to pull it off for the team.”
Now the focus will turn to the Women’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Saturday January 27.
You can find full results here and to relive the rest of the tour with the Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 galleries.
