Tour Down Under stage 3: Sarah Gigante destroys field on Willunga Hill to win overall

Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) dismantled the field on Old Willunga Hill, taking the stage and the overall victory on stage 3 of the women's Santos Tour Down Under. Behind Gigante, Nienke Vinke (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM) rounded out the podium on the stage.

It was an emphatic first WorldTour victory for Gigante as the 23-year-old climber torched the final climb, dropping everyone off of her wheel, including the race leader Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez), with half the climb remaining.

"I can’t even believe to tell you how much it means," Gigante said after the finish. "I last won here three years ago and it felt like everything went wrong since then, and in so many ways. To come back full circle with a new team that believes in me means so much. I’m so grateful to everyone who kept believing in me."

For Gigante, who gave an emotional interview after she crossed the line, the win couldn’t have meant much more to the young Australian after her career's unsteady start.

"It’s so special. It was really difficult and the team were amazing. I burnt so many of their matches, and a few of mine but they just kept believing in me. It’s our first race as a WorldTour team, Ally [Wollaston] won the first stage, I won the last stage and together we all won the Ocre jersey. It’s just crazy," she said.

"I’m so happy to get a win. It’s pretty tough when you’re only 23 and people think that you’re washed up. Sometimes I did too, and it was so hard to keep believing in myself but I did, and AG Soudal did too and now we’ve won. We’re just going to soak it up."

All about Old Willunga Hill to close out the race

Stage 3 of the Tour Down Under rolled out from downtown Adelaide under a balmy summer sun as the peloton prepared for the women’s first-ever showdown on the famous Old Willunga Hill. With 93km and 1,478 metres of climbing on tap, including the race’s only summit finish, all was to play for in a race that has been only separated by seconds.

Amanda Poulsen (Team Bridgelane), Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health) and Sophie Edwards (ARA-Skip Capital) attacked immediately as the first climb up Windy Point began right as the flag dropped. They were joined by Karin Söderqvist (Lifeplus Wahoo) and Stine Dale (Coop-Repsol) on the climb to make the first breakaway effort of the day.

The difficulty of the climb, however, kept the peloton nipping at the breakaway’s heels and with a few hundred metres left to climb the peloton consumed the escapees. Nevertheless, Ragusa was keen to get the full points at the top of the climb and used a lead out by her teammate Lily Williams to cruise to even more QoM points. All that was left for Ragusa to do was to cross the finish line and collect her prize.

Over the top of the climb, Ragusa was joined by an attacking Edwards and the two pulled out another gap on the peloton. The two riders were then joined at 82km to go by Gina Ricardo (Team Bridgelane). Yet, once again, an antsy peloton was quick on their heels and the trio were caught with 76km to go.

It only took a couple of kilometres for another breakaway to roll the dice with Dale, Lucie Fityus (ARA-Skip Capital) and Haylee Fuller (Team Bridgelane) attacking from the field as the race approached the flat portion of the day.

The three riders worked well together, but yet again were kept on a tight leash of under a minute by the peloton. In particular, stage 1 winner Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) was prominent at the front of affairs, keeping her team leader Sarah Gigante close to the front and protected ahead of the Willunga finish.

With two sprint points coming at 44km to go and 26km to go, respectively, the impetus of the teams hoping to score time bonuses with their leaders brought the leading trio back into the fold with just over 50km to go.

Nevertheless, Dale and Fityus were not done with their attacks and the pair rolled the dice again just 4km after they were reeled in. Their fight was short-lived, once again, as the sprint point came soon after. The pair were swept up within 50 metres of the sprint that was won by Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco), ahead of her teammate Alex Manly and Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ).

The action wasn’t done at the line as the race turned a corner and UAE Team ADQ immediately began pacing as a strong cross-tailwind threatened to split the field. Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike and Liv AlUla Jayco were all quick to lend a hand in setting the pace, however, the wind appeared to be mostly from arrears and the group stayed largely intact as the race approached the coast.

The one important rider who seemed to struggle in the winds was Gigante. The Australian, who had been shepherded by her full team throughout the race, struggled mightily in positioning during the frantic racing of the crosswinds.

At one point, the pure climber found herself off the back of the peloton with still over 30km to race until the final climb. It took a big effort by her teammate Wollaston to get her back to safety and into the group as the likes of Lidl-Trek and Canyon-SRAM kept the pace on as the race barrelled along the coast.

The race lulled and had a close call with a dog on the course before the final intermediate sprint sprung the race back into action. Once again it was Włodarczyk and Roseman-Gannon battling for the bonus seconds, as they have throughout the race. This time, Włodarczyk was able to take the maximum seconds, while Roseman-Gannon just missed out on the second position from her teammate Georgia Baker.

With those time bonuses, Włodarczyk and Roseman-Gannon pulled ahead of Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) on the virtual overall standings by one second.

As the race entered the last 20km all the sprint points had been settled and the peloton began to get in line before the final chapter of the race would be settled on Old Willunga Hill.

In the final run to the climb, Lidl-Trek, Canyon-SRAM, Liv AlUla Jayco and dsm-firmenich PostNL were the teams driving the pace for their respective leaders, as all the pre-race favourites were in attendance. 3km at 7.4% awaited the riders on the Old Willunga Hill and the intensity was palpable in the run to the line.

Lidl-Trek was the team that managed to make the biggest impression on the race with the full outfit on the front protecting their leader, Amanda Spratt, and placing her in the perfect position as the road tilted upwards. As the gradient began to bite, it was Gigante who hit out first, shredding the race down quickly to a lead group of only seven riders. Crucially, one rider she could not initially shake was Uttrup Ludwig, who was glued to her wheel.

After a kilometre into the climb, Gigante upped the pace yet again and this time it was emphatic, as the young Australian cracked Uttrup Ludwig, and everyone else, soloing away from the rest of the peloton. For the next 2km, there was never any doubt, the race was her's for the taking.

Vinke came across the line best of the rest, with the 19-year-old taking her biggest result to date, and Neve Bradbury produced a solid third-place finish ahead of Spratt. Yet, on this day it was all about one name: Sarah Gigante, winning her first WorldTour stage and taking a massive overall victory.