Sarah Gigante took a dominant win on stage three of the Women's Tour Down Under and claimed the overall classification after a brutal attack on Willunga Hill.
Nienke Vinke (Team dsm-firmenich Post NL) was a distant second and Neve Bradbury (Canyon//SRAM) won the sprint with Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) for third on the stage. Vinke finished second overall, 20 seconds behind Gigante, and Bradbury was 33 seconds down in third.
Gigante attacked from the bottom of the climb, initially drawing a select group with her before going solo. Overnight leader Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ–Suez) faded after initially following Gigante. Uttrup Ludwig eventually finished 14th on the stage and dropped to 9th overall.
For Gigante, it’s a sensational return to form after a few difficult years.
“I can’t even begin to tell you much that means after the last one here three years ago [at the Santos Festival of Cycling]. It felt like everything went wrong since then in so many ways,” Gigante said after the finish.
“To come back full circle and with my new team and they believe in me so much and I’m just so grateful to everyone who kept believing in me. It’s so special.”
The Women’s Tour Down Under was Gigante’s first race with her new team, AG Insurance-Soudal. Her victory is the team’s first-ever Women's WorldTour stage race win and she was quick to point out the impact of the team’s belief in her, especially after some positioning issues in the wind earlier in the stage.
“It was really difficult. My team was so amazing. I burnt so many of their matches and a few of mine, but they kept believing in me.”
“It’s our first tour as a WorldTour team, Ally [Wollaston] won the first stage, I won the last stage and together we all won the ochre jersey. It’s just crazy.”
“I’m just so happy to get a win. It’s pretty tough when you’re only 23 and lots of people think you’re washed-up, and sometimes I did too. It was just so hard to keep believing in myself but I did and AG Insurance-Soudal did too and now we won so I’m just going to soak it up.”
How it unfolded
The final stage of the 2024 Women's Tour Down Under was all about the much-anticipated battle between the overall favourites up Willunga Hill. It was the first time in the race's history that the route took the riders up the iconic climb.
With Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig holding a slender advantage over her rivals heading into the stage, all focus was on the hilltop finish. Twenty-four riders were within ten seconds of the Dane's lead after stage two.
The day's first classified climb came straight out of the blocks as the riders left Adelaide. Five riders went on the attack as soon as race director Stuart O'Grady's flag dropped. They included Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health) who just about stayed clear of the peloton for long enough to once again claim maximum points on the climb up to Windy Point, confirming that she would be awarded the Queen of the Mountain jersey at the end of the race.
Several riders commented before the stage that they were wary of potential crosswinds as the route took the riders out towards the coast. This meant that the team of the race leader, FDJ-Suez, wanted to keep the pace high, to the frustration of several riders who hoped to form a breakaway early on.
After a few failed moves, Stine Dale (Coop-Repsol), Haylee Fuller (BridgeLane) and Lucie Fityus (ARA-Skip Capital) successfully got clear of the bunch with 70km to go. However, with the wind blowing and the first intermediate sprint approaching, the peloton kept them on a short leash.
The group was caught before the sprint in Willunga, which allowed Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco) to take three bonus seconds with her teammate Alex Manly taking two seconds and Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) one to make the GC even tighter as Willunga Hill came ever closer.
As the peloton left the town of Willunga with a little less than half the stage to go, the big teams raised the tempo, trying to put their rivals under pressure in the wind. Defending champion Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) and Gigante were temporarily dropped as the pace lifted, the pair using up crucial energy as the peloton approached the second intermediate sprint at Snapper Point.
Wlodarczyk won the sprint and Roseman-Gannon was third, meaning the pair were tied on time on the provisional GC before the finale, one second ahead of overnight leader Uttrup Ludwig.
Lidl-Trek took control of the bunch on the approach to Willunga Hill in support of Amanda Spratt, splitting and stretching the group on the approach to the climb.
Unafraid of the wind which was now in the riders’ faces as they started the climb, Gigante attacked with 2.8km to go, Uttrup Ludwig reacting quickly in her wheel. The move created a select group of five. Spratt and Bradbury were distanced shortly after and it seemed only Uttrup Ludwig and Vinke could stay with the former Australian champion.
Gigante accelerated again with 2.3km to go, immediately distancing the ochre jersey and Vinke. 19-year-old Dutch rider Vinke chased, but Uttrup Ludwig faded, the overnight leader drifting down the order by the end of the stage.
Gigante seemed invincible as Willunga wore on, the earlier troubles in the wind seemed a distant memory as she powered up the climb for which she also holds the Strava record.
Vinke impressed in her chase of the AG Insurance-Soudal rider. She held off Bradbury and Spratt in the run to the line to claim a breakthrough runner-up spot.
As she approached the finish, Gigante let out a celebration yell which communicated her relief and joy at having overcome the troubles of the previous seasons. It’s her first-ever WorldTour victory and one which is sure to live long in her memory.
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