Winder wins the Women's Tour Down Under

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Report

US champion Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) fought off attacks in a battle for time bonuses on the final criterium stage of the Women's Tour Down Under to secure overall victory in Adelaide on Sunday.

Winder safely sailed across the finish line with the bunch to secure the leader's ochre jersey after Simona Frapporti (BePink) won the stage from a 10-rider breakaway.

The Italian charged to the line on the final stage of the four-day tour ahead of Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank) and Rushlee Buchanan (Vantage New Zealand). 

It was good news for Winder that a winning break got away as they soaked up the bonus seconds that had the power to threaten her lead in the first UCI ranked race of 2020 and first ProSeries race ever. 

Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) and three-time tour winner Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) were both just seven seconds down on general classification at the start of the stage, so were furiously chasing the intermediate sprint time bonuses to try and pull back the gap. 

They made some inroads during the 42.5 kilometre race around the Adelaide circuit, but not enough to dislodge Winder from the ochre jersey. In the end, Lippert finished five seconds back, while a gap of six seconds stood between Spratt and a fourth Women’s Tour Down Under victory.

"I need a second really. That race was pretty crazy. Sunweb and Mitchelton are really strong teams but we where able to pull it off," Winder said straight after the finish.

“Yesterday, after winning the stage, it was such a special feeling and I am really excited to celebrate with my team after this."

It was on Saturday’s stage 3 that the Trek-Segafredo rider tore up the expected script — Mitchelton-Scott taking control and holding onto that ochre jersey until the end — by grabbing the lead from Spratt on the final road stage. For three years running, no one has been able to loosen the Australian champion’s grip on the ochre jersey, so it came as a surprise, even to Trek-Segafredo, when Winder ended up not just winning stage 3 but also walking into the leader's jersey and setting herself up for the overall win. 

Still, it was almost an inevitability that Mitchelton-Scott would one day have to give up their stranglehold on the race as it continued to go up the UCI rankings and draw an ever more competitive field. That time may have come a little sooner than the Australian team would have liked.

On the other hand, it ended up being an incredibly successful race for Team Sunweb and their 22-year-old German rider. Sunweb won the team category while Lippert not only secured second in the overall standings but also both the Queen of the Mountains jersey and the Young Rider classification. The sprinter's jersey also went to Sunweb’s Leah Kirchmann. 

How it happened

It was a nervous beginning to the 25-lap race in central Adelaide, with the tight overall standings making it more than just a day for the sprinters. Those time bonuses at the three intermediate sprints - three seconds for the winner, two for second place, and one for third - had the potential to make a real difference. So could the 10, six and four-second time bonuses at the finish line for the top three.

As the race started, it was all about positioning for those intermediate sprints. As the first approached at six laps in, Trek-Segafredo, Team Sunweb and Mitchelton-Scott, moved to the front en masse.

Trek and Sunweb clearly had the most powerful trains and, when third-placed Lippert wound up her sprint, Winder had no choice but to throw herself into the action as well. However, she couldn’t match Lippert’s speed and the German rider was first over the line, while Winder took fifth, which meant her gap was now down to just four seconds. 

On the next sprint, it was Mitchelton-Scott and Spratt that Trek-Segafredo had to contend with. While Winder couldn’t quite chase the Australian champion down, speedy teammate Lotta Henttala held onto the front position to soak up the three bonus seconds. Spratt earned two and Winder one. That meant Winder now led Lippert by five seconds and Spratt by six.

Taking advantage of the lull after the sprint, a breakaway of 10 got away - a good situation for Winder, who would clearly relish them soaking up all the bonus seconds in the third sprint. 

The break kept working together and held on through the third sprint at lap 18, which was taken by Jaime Gunning (Specialized Women’s Racing). They then continued on and stretched the gap, with Rushlee Buchanan leaping out the front to try and go it alone.

Seeing the stage win and any last hope of the overall slip away, the teams of the sprinters, Mitchelton-Scott and Sunweb, started to turn up the pace and chase the break, who were at the same time closing down Buchanan’s advantage. 

Buchanan was caught but the peloton left the chase too late. Once Italian track rider Frapporti leapt out from the group on the run-in to the line, it was clear no one could catch her.

"I had one chance and I wanted to use it," said an elated Frapporti after the stage.

The time gap and bonuses from second place moved TIBCO-SVB’s Stephens up in the overall category. She finished fourth at 17 seconds, ahead of stage 1 winner Chloe Hosking (Rally Cycling).

Results

Final classification