'First time I will wear bib number one' - Noemi Rüegg faces new territory as defending champion at 2026 Tour Down Under

For Noemi Rüegg, the Tour Down Under marked a major milestone for the EF Education-Oatly rider with bib number one on her back. The Swiss rider had a breakout season in 2025, which began on similar roads out of Adelaide and led to her first Women's WorldTour overall race victory. She'll begin defence of her title on Saturday, with three stages for the women's Tour Down Under concluding on Monday, January 19.

Number one was a huge motivation for the 2026 campaign, her third season with the EF squad and the first year the team competes at the WorldTour level after gaining top-tier status at the end of last season.

"It’s the first time I will actually wear bib number one, so that’s really special," Rüegg said in a team press release. "To defend something will be a new situation for me, but I'll try to take it as I did last year, with as little pressure as possible and just try to enjoy being back here, just to take this as a motivation that I’m the defending champion."

This year, Rüegg will have the World Champion on her side, Magdeleine Vallieres, both taking part in a Tour Down Under press conference on Friday, one day ahead of the race start. Both 24-year-olds are joined on the start list by New Zealander Henrietta Christie, team debutants Alice Towers of Great Britain and Stina Kagevi, the Swede just 20.

"I think we have a really strong team. It’s very diverse, so we have a lot of different qualities and strengths within the team, and I’m sure that together we are super strong. Every individual is strong, and we can play different cards and use our own strengths, and we’ll do the best that we can."

At the press conference, she talked about the unknowns of the competition.

"We have a very strong women's peloton this year, with all the WorldTour teams being at the start line. Yeah, if I look to my left, I think I have some strong competitors here," the race champion said at the press conference, casting a glance to see Australian road champion Mackenzie Coupland (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto), who won stage 3 last year in Stirling.

"It's the first race of the season. You don't know where everyone's standing."

What was known was that course changes would factor into a completely new race in its 10th edition for the women. Of course, last year Rüegg used a victory on the Willunga Hill stage to move into the GC lead and went on to secure her first Women's WorldTour win. This year the races starts in Willunga, but won't feature the hill itself as a decisive climb, providing punchy ascents instead across 134.7 kilometres.

"I think the organisation has done a very good job in creating three very exciting stages, very diverse. And personally, I think it's coming down to the last stage, the Corkscrew climb, a very demanding climb. I'm expecting some time gaps there," Rüegg said at the press conference.

"But of course, the first two days, everything can happen as well. So yeah, we have to stay safe in the first two days and then try to give it all out on the corkscrew."

Stage 2 brings a rolling day from Magill for 130.7km, which concludes at Paracombe in the Adelaide Hills. The finale is 126.5km from Norwood to Campbelltown, with the category 1 Corkscrew Road featuring twice before a downhill finish. The corkscrew is just over 2km in distance, but the average gradient is 9.7%, kicking to 16.2% in places.

It was a short off-season for the Swiss rider, who "spent a lot of time indoors on the trainer" as the cold months of winter hit in Switzerland to end the calendar year. She said that her preparations have been similar to last year, which, of course, had great end results, but questions crept in about replicating those high results.

"I know I did quite a similar preparation as I did last year with the winter, and it worked out really well for the whole season afterwards, so I’m pretty confident that I’m on the right path as well now.

"Of course, I also have a lot of thoughts. Is it going to be the same as last year? Can I defend the title? Can I prove what I did last year? And for the whole season, I had such a good season last year that I think this win at Tour Down Under gave me a lot of confidence for the whole season, so I think it was quite an important win for me, so I hope I can do it again."

With the confidence gained at Tour Down Under last season, Rüegg went on to third at Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and then top 10s at spring Classics in Italy, also on the podium at Milano-San Remo Donne. In the second half of the year, she earned a trio of top 10s on stages at her home stage race, Tour de Suisse Women, and finished with third overall at 1.Pro Tre Valli Varesine.

"I think every team comes with a very strong team for the GC. I think Lidl-Trek is one of the [top] competitors. But I think it's open."

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