Maeve Plouffe sprints to the win on stage 2 of Santos Festival of Cycling

Maeve Plouffe (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast) was triumphant in the second day of women's racing at the Santos Festival of Cycling. With the late attacks pulled back the South Australian used her track speed and powerful sprint to capture victory.

The next two steps of the podium were a repeat of stage 1 with overall leader Ruby Roseman-Gannon (BikeExchange-Jayco) coming second – after also battling with Plouffe through the intermediate sprints of the day – while Australian champion Nicole Frain (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) came third.

The victory for Plouffe, who represented Australia on the track at the Tokyo Olympic Games, came after a childhood spent watching her local race from the side of the road before first joining the peloton of it in 2017.

“To then come out and win a stage today, I’ve been dreaming of this for years," Plouffe said after the stage. "I rode my first Tour when I was 18, I think I was the youngest person in it, and so to finally win this many years later is so exciting.”

The rider, who carefully picked her moves and stayed out of the wind through a spate of attacks in the final ten kilometres, said the victory also helped sate the disappointment of a Road Nationals that didn't live up to expectations after she faced a difficult run-in, suffering with COVID-19.

"But then to come out here and execute a good solid team race ... is so satisfying and so exciting,” said Plouffe.

How it unfolded

The stage, the second of four days of racing in South Australia, started at the Penny Hill winery in McLaren Vale before winding its way through 87.5 kilometres, nearly three of those on gravel, to Echunga.

The early spots of rain that fell through sign-on quickly cleared and heat started to build, both in and out of the racing. The stage route unfolded with plenty of obstacles to help form the splits and plenty of teams wanting to capitalise on them in a bid to snatch the overall lead from Roseman-Gannon or make a mark with a stage victory. 

Ultimately, however, the breaks were absorbed back into the bunch and the BikeExchange-Jayco rider not only held her lead but extended it. Roseman-Gannon, who started the stage two seconds up on Emily Watts (Knights of Suburbia), finished the day eight seconds ahead of nearest overall rival Plouffe, and 13 seconds up on Watts.

“We had to watch out for those dangerous moves, especially through the climb and the gravel and also avoiding crashes, so I just went with anything that I thought was dangerous and my teammates covered the last 10km," Roseman-Gannon said.

"Other teams really put it up to us and really sent riders up the road so we really had to use up a lot of energy before we even got to the sprint which made for some really good racing. Ultimately Maeve got me at the end but I’m pretty excited to hold onto the jersey and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got tomorrow to hopefully come up for the win.”

The dangerous moves Roseman-Gannon talked of included one with Matilda Raynolds (InForm TMX Make) and Samara Shepherd (Team Westpac) right before the sometimes loose and potholed gravel section 40km into the racing. As the field split to pieces over the uneven surface the duo then evolved into a group of six, including Roseman-Gannon, Grace Brown (Team Garmin Australia), Ruth Corset (VA Pro Racing) and Frain.

Then later after the Queen of the Mountain points – and the jersey – were swept up by Corset and the field had come back together, Megan Armitage attacked. The Team Westpac rider stretched out the gap far enough to bring Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco) to the front to chase and also captured the most competitive rider jersey.

Into the final ten kilometres Corset went again, pulling a group with her, and Brown went solo with five kilometres to go. When the Australian time trial champion was caught – largely due to the efforts of the second-placed time trial rider Amber Pate (BikeExchange-Jayco) – there was a counter attack. This time it came from Brown’s teammate Alyssa Polites, who holds the U23 road race Australian title.

The list of attacks throughout the racing seemed to keep growing ever longer, but ultimately none stuck through to the end and it became a second day where the race was decided by a sprint. 

The stage ahead, too, could be another day of splits, with the final day out on the road, before the criterium, taking in two unpaved sections and a climb just two kilometres from the finish line.