After going on the attack in the opening stage of the Women's Tour Down Under and securing the mountains classification jersey, Alyssa Polites sent a message to the cycling world that she's back.
Two years ago, Polites was a neo-pro full of promise and ambitions. She was on her way, having signed a WorldTour contract with Jayco-AlUla at age 19, and aspired to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris, to race Paris-Roubaix and win a world title.
Those dreams crumbled before she could show her talent on the world's stage through illness and injury. With her performance on the stage from Brighton to Aldinga Beach, Polites hopes they'll be rekindled.
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"It's definitely a boost to the confidence it's coming at a really good time," Polites said, beaming in the post-race interview.
"I just really enjoyed the atmosphere on the home roads. I had a bit of a crack and it worked out OK."
Attacking solo less than 20 kilometres into the stage, Polites had one goal - to reach the top of the category 1 climb, Heatherdale Hill and take the mountains jersey. A time bonus at the top of the climb also help Polites take the best young rider white jersey.
"I knew it was really early. I had the finish line right on the QOM," Polites said.
The 8.4-kilometre ascent starts with a rather gentle 3.6% average, but the last kilometre is a much more arduous 9%. Support from her team car "really egged me on", she said.
When asked about her brief stint in the WorldTour, Polites explained that before she could even join the team, she suffered her first serious setback. She caught COVID-19 in June while building up for the Commonwealth Games of 2022 and ended up with long COVID.
The recovery set her back to square one, and her 2023 season with Jayco-AlUla started with a slew of DNFs. The bad luck wasn't over.
"I had a really serious accident towards the end of my first year as a neo-pro," she explained to Cyclingnews. "I ruptured my spleen in the first edition of l'Avenir so that's quite serious. But yeah, I live to fight another day."
Polites agreed with the Jayco team to step back to their development team for the 2024 season but, "Unfortunately, I had a lot of bad luck last year as well, so it just wasn't meant to be.
"There was no bad blood. I hope I get another opportunity again to race with the only Australian WorldTour team. I think they're a great team.
"I'm really hungry for it. I think I've got the foundation now to build off from and I've got my confidence and spark again."
