Paula Blasi confirms herself as Queen of the Mountains at the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under, while UAE Team ADQ places three riders inside the top 4 of both the third and final stage and the General Classification: 2nd Mavi Garcia, 3rd Paula Blasi and 4th Dominika Włodarczyk, after a day spent at the very front of the race.
The final stage, the most demanding of the event, covered 126.5 kilometres from Norwood to Campbelltown, featuring a tough and selective course. For this reason, UAE Team ADQ adopted a very aggressive race strategy, especially in the closing phases.
After a long two-rider breakaway that was eventually brought back by the peloton, the race entered its decisive moments. The work of Alena Ivanchenko and Erica Magnaldi set the stage for the team leaders to make their move. Paula Blasi, collecting valuable points on the climbs, secured the Queen of the Mountains jersey. Shortly afterwards, Mavi Garcia launched her attack, followed by a strong move from Dominika Włodarczyk, who opened a gap 16 kilometres from the finish.
On the final ascent of Corkscrew Road, the Polish rider was joined at the front by teammates Garcia and Blasi, along with defending race champion Noemi Rüegg (EF Education–Oatly).
UAE Team ADQ tried to make the most of their numerical advantage with repeated attacks, but the Swiss rider responded promptly each time. In the final sprint, as fatigue began to take its toll, Rüegg proved the fastest and claimed both the stage and the overall victory.
Despite this, it was an impressive team performance from UAE Team ADQ, who animated and shaped the race with their three leading riders, finished with three athletes in the top 4 of the first WorldTour race of the season, and also secured the team classification. There is a slight sense of disappointment, but above all the confidence to build on this performance heading into the next important goals of the season.
After the race, Paula Blasi, winner of the Mountains Classification, said: “My personal goal today was to defend the Green Jersey, and I managed to do that. Given how the finale unfolded, I can’t be completely happy, there’s a bit of disappointment, but we know we have a very strong team and what happened today will be an important lesson for the rest of the season.”
Mavi Garcia added: “We tried until the very end, but we have to congratulate Noemi Rüegg, who once again proved to be very strong and managed to repeat last year’s victory.”
(ph. Getty Sport)
