Successful Tour Down Under finished at the top of Willunga Hill
Lifeplus-Wahoo rounded off their 2024 opening season campaign at the Santos Women’s Down Under after a fantastic three stages with determination and teamwork key to the team’s success.
An early break in the 93.4km stage saw Karin Söderqvist up the road with four GC contenders, before getting reeled back in as the riders faced the first climb just 4km into the stage. The category one climb at Windy Point was a great one for the climbers, averaging 6% with a 20% maximum gradient, with Kate Richardson, Kaja Rysz, Alicia Gonzalez and Söderqvist well in the mix as riders attacked over the climb in a bid to getaway.
A group of five, include Karin Söderqvist made a 30 second lead with 80km still remaining, but came back together, before another duo went clear. As the crosswind started to pick up, the riders swallowed up the break quickly as the peloton got organised and picked up a ferocious pace as they headed down towards the coast.
With the early, undulating part of the course complete, the landscape flattened out for the first intermediate sprint. The bunch kept on the frantic pace through the sprint, with riders jostling for position as the wind also caused challenges in the open roads.
Inside the final 40km, the teams were all still fighting at the front, with the Lifeplus-Wahoo train storming alongside the Adelaide rolling coast road towards the second intermediate sprint. Team captain Gonzalez and Rysz set up Heidi Franz for the sprint, repeating yesterday’s efforts that saw Franz take fifth on the stage, to propel the American to a positional advantage in the bunch.
A slip on a bend inside the final 12km saw Richardson hit the deck but recovered quickly to jump back on her bike and chase back into the peloton, with the pace gearing up in preparation for the uphill finish. The team remained calm, with Söderqvist taking control at the front of the bunch, and Richardson making it back to help in the closing stages of the race.
Finishing on the summit of the iconic Willunga Hill, with a maximum gradient of 15.6%, the bunch strung out as they hit the 3km climb. Australian rider Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) rode away solo to put further pressure on the peloton, as Franz was set up by her teammates inside the final kilometre.
Franz fought all the way to the top to secure as high as finish possible and rolled across the line in 20th, with Richardson, Gonzalez, Rysz and Söderqvist crossing the finish together in 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 55th respectively, to round off an exciting third stage.
Franz finished in 19th place on the GC to finish a fantastic Tour Down Under for the team with two top five results, a day in the white Best Young Riders Jersey and a top 20 on the GC.
Check out the image gallery of stage 3 here.