Tour Down Under: Ally Wollaston wins stage 1 with a commanding sprint victory

Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) took a commanding sprint victory in the first stage of the Tour Down Under ahead of Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ).

The day, which saw the peloton take on 93km of rolling terrain in the first Women’s WorldTour race of the year, played out as expected with a four-rider breakaway of Matilda Raynolds (Team Bridgelane), Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health), India Grangier (Team Coop-Repsol) and Kate Richardson (Lifeplus Wahoo) heading up the road early.

The four riders were brought back into the fold before the sprint, with Raynolds being the final holdout. In the sprint, Liv AlUla Jayco looked to be in control until the explosive Wollaston burst from the peloton through the middle of the road and took an emphatic win at the line, the first WorldTour win of her career.

"I’m really overwhelmed actually. It’s my first WorldTour win, so I’m just really proud. The girls rode amazingly today and I can’t thank them enough for what they did," Wollaston said after the finish.

"I’m not usually that confident in the bunch but they looked after me so well. We had a plan in the finish to stick on the right-hand side, and just commit to the finish and we did exactly that. It couldn’t have gone any better.

“We’ve got a pretty big powerhouse in the team for this week. Sarah [Gigante] is our little pocket rocket, so we’ll be targeting Sunday’s stage with her but for tomorrow we’ll try and hold onto the jersey for as long as possible and see what happens.”

A true-to-form sprinters stage to start the WorldTour season

The Women’s WorldTour got underway with a rolling stage 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under. With the race in its second edition as a part of the WorldTour, the event attracted a crop of nine WorldTour teams, six wildcard squads and the Australian national team.

The first of the three stages of the race was a 93km affair with 1,483 metres of climbing between Hahndorf and the expected sprint finish in Campbelltown.

Before the day got underway, the peloton stopped for a moment of silence for former professional cyclist Melissa Hoskins.

After the moment of silence the race began with a 2.4km neutral section before the day started in earnest. When the flag dropped, however, little changed as the group stayed compact despite the race being officially on.

The race only came alive after 12km when the peloton hit the first sprint point. With time bonus up for grabs, there was a rush in the peloton with UAE Team ADQ and Liv AlUla Jayco lining up to position their GC leaders for the bonus seconds. Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco), resplendent in her new Australian national championship kit, took the maximum bonus from the peloton.

The first attack of the race came straight after the sprint point with Matilda Raynolds (Team Bridgelane) attacking from the peloton. She was soon joined by Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health) and India Grangier (Team Coop-Repsol) forming a group of three ahead of a peloton that seemed keen to let the trio up the road.

All wasn’t settled quite yet as Kate Richardson (Lifeplus Wahoo) broke free 2km later to try and bridge the 50-second gap between the peloton and the breakaway as the rest of the field was content leaving Richardson to try and forge across the gap on her own.

Up the road, the trio worked well together, carving out an advantage of over three minutes by the time the race reached the Hawthorn QOM with 64km to go. Amongst the leader, Ragusa launched her sprint for the mountain points and held on to the top, taking maximum points ahead of Grangier and Raynolds.

Just behind the breakaway, Richardson kept forging on, holding out hope of linking up with the day's breakaway. Finally, with 56km to go left of the stage, Richardson made contact with the three leaders.

The second sprint point of the day came with 44km to go and was won by Ragusa, who overhauled Grangier to take maximum points. Back in the bunch, Liv AlUla Jayco spearheaded the peloton 2:40 behind the breakaway.

The next climb of the day, the short kicker up the Keton Valley climb, quickly followed with 36km to go. Once again Grangier hit out first and once again Ragusa was able to come around her to take maximum points and clinched the first QOM jersey of the race. Right after the life, Raynolds took a flyer and immediately got a gap ahead of her three fellow breakaway riders.

The experienced Australian powered on ahead and grew an advantage that saw her out of sight from the chasers. The peloton, with Liv AlUla Jayco still leading the chase from behind, had wound the breakaway back to just over a minute ahead of the chasers with 28km to go.

On the final uncategorised climbs of the day the rest of the breakaway were pulled back into the peloton, as Raynolds battled on ahead, holding onto a slim margin over the main field.

Raynolds was finally caught with 9km to go as the peloton finished their run down towards Campbelltown. A few crashes interrupted the run to the line as the bigger teams battled for position, with Lidl-Trek, FDJ-Suez, Canyon-SRAM and AG Insurance-Soudal playing the biggest roles in the final.

Into the final three kilometres, it was Lidl-Trek on the left, Liv AlUla Jayco on the right and a mix of teams down the middle as the race came to the finish. Liv continued to take further control through the final two kilometres.

In the final kilometre, it was still Liv AlUla Jayco at the head of the pack, but soon it was clear they were short in numbers as Rose-Gannon hit the front with 300 metres to go, trying to set up Baker for the sprint.

Nevertheless, Wollaston was waiting right behind the Liv AlUla Jayco riders and timed her sprint to perfection, accelerating with a clear pair of wheels over the rest of the sprinters and claiming the biggest win of the 21-year-old’s career and the overall leader's jersey into stage 2.

Tour Down Under - Stage 1

• Dates 12 Jan
• Race Length 93 kms
• Start Hahndorf
• Finish Campbelltown
• Race Category Elite Women