Georgia Baker wins women's criterium at Santos Festival of Cycling

Georgia Baker continued the BikeExchange-Jayco run of success at the Santos Festival of Cycling, taking out the women's criterium that brought the women's racing to a close. 

Josie Talbot (Sydney Uni Staminade) took a close-run second in the final criterium, while it another day on the podium for Maeve Plouffe (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast), who added third place to her stage 2 victory and third on the GC standings, which were decided on the final road stage to Lobethal before the criterium. 

“It was actually a real honour to be able to pull it off for the team tonight and I am super excited. It’s my first win in a little while so it’s pretty special,” said Baker. 

“Tonight was really hectic. You could see there were a few crashes out on the course so I hope everyone is okay that came down. It is just really fast and really quick and you’ve always got to be concentrating and it is really important to stay in the top half of the bunch and try and avoid those crashes. 

"I had some great teammates who made my job really easy to be out of the hectic bunch so it was really good to be able to pull it off for them today.”

The mid-week evening crit was run on a 1.35km circuit in the heart of Adelaide, providing a typically warm 45 minutes and 1 lap finale to four days of racing as evening temperatures held over 30°C . 

The laps of the streets of Adelaide came after three stages on the road of the South Australian countryside where Baker helped teammate, Ruby Roseman-Gannon, sweep up the overall victory in the Santos Festival of Cycling. The men's racing began on the same circuit just half an hour after the women's race finished.

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How it unfolded

At the Trek Night Riders criterium, Lauretta Hanson may have been racing for Team Westpac but she was quick to put her Trek-Segafredo jersey and bike out on display at the front, with the rider who started her career in criterium racing taking out the first intermediate sprint on lap 5. 

There were some crashes early on, with one including stage 1 winner Emily Watts (Knights of Suburbia). She ripped through the shoulder of her jersey in the crash, but rejoined regardless.

The second intermediate sprint on lap 10 was taken out by the 17-year-old Belinda Bailey (StepFWD Soomom), who had only just celebrated her birthday on the final stage of racing out on the road Tuesday. After that, Peta Mullens (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) took off, and there were a number of riders quick to jump on her wheel, including the attentive Ruby Roseman-Gannon (BikeExchange-Jayco) and climber Carlee Taylor (Inform TMX MAKE). However the race was all back together before the 15 lap sprint, taken out by Hayley Jones (Giant Racing).

As the minutes ticked down, the attacks started to get more serious. 

Australian champion Nicole Frain (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) went on the move and Matilda Raynolds (Inform TMX MAKE) was quick to follow, but the bunch had no intention of letting such a dangerous move go this late. With the 45 minutes up, BikeExchange-Jayco guest rider Amber Pate was on the front keeping the pace high for her teammates. 

As the sprint neared, it was clear that it was Baker’s turn to make a mark for the Australian-registered WorldTeam, capitalising on the strength she’d shown in the sprint lead-outs for Roseman-Gannon during the road stages. 

It was a clear victory for the rider who has, up until recently, been focused on the track. It was, however, a close-run battle for second, with Talbot just beating Plouffe in the throw to the line.