Winder takes stage 3 and race lead at Women's Tour Down Under

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US national champion Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) is threatening to break Mitchelton-Scott's domination of the Women’s Tour Down Under after taking the third stage uphill sprint win ahead of Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) and Lauren Stephens (Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank).

The stage winner's ten-second time bonus put Winder in the leaders ochre jersey, after former leader and three-time winner Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) finished the stage in tenth place. Lippert and Spratt are now both sitting seven seconds back from Winder in the overall. Stage 1 winner and Australian criterium champion Chloe Hosking (Rally Cycling), who went deep and came an impressive fifth on the hilly stage 3, is next on the GC at 30 seconds behind Winder. 

It is a small margin and there are nineteen seconds of time bonuses up for grabs during Sunday's final criterium stage but it is going to be a big task for anyone to now take the jersey from Winder. 

“I’ll have to put some sprinter legs on,” said Winder after the stage. “We also have Lotta (Henttala) who is a super fast sprinter, she got second on the first stage, and we will be looking to see if we can get her on the podium again.”

If Winder can hold onto the lead, it’ll be the first time in the five years that Mitchelton-Scott hasn’t taken the win in the Women's Tour Down Under. 

The Australian team fought hard to defend the four-second lead that three-time winner Spratt had carved out on Friday but the constant attacks took a toll, leaving the Australian rider with little support in the finale and in a less than ideal position in the sprint to the line. 

"It all came down to that final sprint. I was a little too far back a couple of kilometres out and I used a bit of energy to get up but even so, you saw how punchy Ruth was at the finish," said Spratt, graceful in defeat.

"She had a really incredible ride and sometimes you also have to realise when someone’s had a really great ride. My legs just kind of exploded. I finished totally empty so I couldn’t have done anything more."

How it unfolded

The riders knew they were in for a tough day out on the bike as they rolled out from historic township of Nairne in the Adelaide hills for the final road race stage of the four-day race.

Given the ochre jersey was at stake and the final 50 kilometres of the course were an unrelenting series of climbs and descents, including some dirt roads, the stage was always going to be action packed.

It didn’t take long before the attacks started flying out of the peloton. There were some unsuccessful digs before a break of five launched and soaked up the sprint points at 22.8 kilometres down, with Anna Louise Henderson (Team Sunweb) taking first. Then there was a break of six, including stage one’s third placed rider Matilda Raynolds (Specialized Women’s Racing), which stretched out the gap to nearly two minutes. However after the peloton went through the one kilometre long gravel section, it too was swept up.

The attacks continued but they were constantly reeled in, with Mitchelton-Scott attentive and working hard on the front to try and help deliver Spratt one step closer to a fourth consecutive title. It also quickly became clear that Trek-Segafredo were doing their utmost to stop that happening.

“The entire team the whole race was really active at the front, covering things and making sure I was really safe until those circuits, which were pretty hard with Mitchelton just drilling it on the climbs,” said Winder.

When the second sprint came at 35 kilometres to go on the initial passage through the finish line at Stirling, the first chinks in Spratt’s armour started to show with Winder taking the sprint ahead of the Australian champion. That put Winder one second closer to the lead.

Ella Harris (Canyon-SRAM), scooped up the Queen of the Mountain points from the category 3 Kywarra climb at 17 kilometres to go and then another attack escaped with 12km to race. Leigh-Ann Ganzar (Rally Cycling) impressively stretched the gap to more than 50 seconds. It wasn’t enough though; with the break shut down at less than two kilometres to go as the teams of the top overall riders all upped the pace as the finish line approached. 

Now Spratt was isolated and out of position while, with the help of teammate Taylor Wiles, Winder set herself up perfectly for the uphill sprint to the line in Stirling. 

The ten-second bonus that came with Winder’s first place on the 109 kilometre stage meant she comfortably stepped into the ochre jersey, particularly as Spratt was in tenth so didn’t get any bonuses on the finish line.

Lippert’s second place put her equal with Spratt at seven seconds down.

In the other classifications, Lippert held onto the Best Young Rider and Queen of the Mountain titles, while Ganzar’s late break meant she was named the Most Competitive Rider.

General classification