Noemi Rüegg and her EF Education-Oatly team successfully defended the Swiss champion's overall position to win the 2025 Women's Santos Tour Down Under, the first WorldTour race of the season, but the team were certainly put to the test by attacks from other teams who sought to unseat the rider in ochre.
Throughout the 105.6km long Ardennes Classic-style circuit in Stirling, the team were under pressure from rivals like Lidl-Trek and Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, so much so that Rüegg was isolated for a time and had to cover one attack herself with 40km to go.
Rüegg withstood the onslaught. In the final 15km, when it became clear the race would now be for the stage win, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto tore up the peloton with repeated attacks for eventual stage winner Chloé Dygert and Rüegg was able to conserve her energy for the final climb to the finish, taking third on the day and winning the overall by 13 seconds ahead of Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) in third.
"I knew it was going to be a tough day, so I was really nervous, but I also had a lot of trust and belief in the team and they did an amazing job," Rüegg said before naming teammate Sarah Roy as the MVP of the day.
"Sarah was absolutely amazing today - she was there until the very end and I honestly didn't expect her to be there that long. She really covered so many moves and also calmed me down, and she was there for me, just to mentally keep me up and motivate me. I'm super thankful for her and she made the right calls, she made the right decisions as team captain, she did everything right."
Roy was more modest in her assessment, telling Cyclingnews, "We handled it as best we could.
"We were definitely feeling the heat today. We're just lucky that Noemi is an absolute freak, and she was able to hold her own in the last lap."
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When asked about having to cover so many attacks, Roy said, "It really hurt. I was cramping. We had a lot of people in all sorts [of trouble]. My teammate Kim [Cadzow] was throwing up and now she's got a bloody nose. We really worked for it today."
Despite the trials and tribulations, the second-year team pulled off the defence of a slim lead and have plenty of achievements to celebrate.
A focussed Noemi Rüegg on the start line, surrounded by her team (Image credit: Getty Images)
"We're just so happy that Noemi could take the win, it couldn't be any better," Roy said. "It just goes to show that when a team picks people that can cooperate and work well together, and not always just paying for big-name riders, it makes a huge difference. [The team are] taking the time to develop people and it's a really nice environment, and supportive, which I think is playing well into our hands for sure."
EF Education-Oatly sports director Daniel Foder told Cyclingnews that keeping Rüegg calm and out of trouble was the key to the victory.
"It was difficult for us, but in the end, Noemi also proved that she was really strong," Foder said. "We knew coming into the last 10k if she was still there with the best, we believed that she would be OK. She had some good teammates around her, especially Sarah who was really, really strong today.
"We knew from the beginning if she starts to do too much, it will end in a bad way for us. So after one attempt from her where she tried to react, she stayed calm and was able to hide a little bit in the group. A lot of teams wanted to win the stage, so we knew that it was not like we had to close down everything. That also saved us sometimes today."
It is only the second season for the team as a part of the same organisation as the men's WorldTour team, and as a ProTeam with less experience as a unit than their competitors, Foder would have been proud of the squad even if they weren't able to pull off the victory.
"It's a new situation for us. In most races we go to, we're kind of like an underdog, so it's new to find ourselves in this situation where we really need to defend, also against bigger teams. This project is really still in development and we are also talking about a lot of development riders.
"No matter what, a day like today would always have been a learning experience. Because sometimes you make it and you have the win. If we had lost everything today, it would still have been a learning [experience] and no matter what, they would have remembered this day and improved from it.
"I think having that in the back of my mind, I was not too nervous about it, because I know that we will have defeats also this season. We will hopefully also have more success."
"They are totally different [races], of course. Now it's about enjoying that Noemi won this race, and then it's about keeping momentum, keep trying. We have a lot of new riders on the team, so we are still learning how to race together as well, so the focus is the same. The win here does not change anything - it's creating momentum, and it's creating more belief within the group."
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
