UAE Team ADQ entered stage 3 of the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under as the clear team to watch, their strength in numbers clear in a final stage which included a double ascent of the tough Corkscrew Road climb within the closing 30 kilometres.
As the road went up, the squad dominated at the front of the race just as expected, ultimately ending up with a trio of Mavi García, Dominika Włodarczyk and Paula Blasi blasting up the final climb. However, there was one problem, and it was a big one.
The rider who had managed to join them out the front was the clearly in-form favourite, Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly).
“Our team fights to win, and then it’s losing,” UAE Team ADQ sports director Michel Cornelisse told reporters in the team area after the finish. “Not nice, but also we can keep our head up – we did everything for it.”
On the first climb, García and Włodarczyk were out front with Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike), while Rüegg’s teammate, world champion Magdeleine Vallieres, led the chase to pull the defending champion back into contention. In the meantime, Włodarczyk went on the attack, getting the gap on Van Dam and García, who were then swept up by the chasers.
Then, on the second climb, Rüegg was the one who closed the gap to Włodarczyk, though she did it with Blasi and García on her wheel, leaving the quartet at the head of the race.
The riders from UAE Team ADQ put the pressure on the EF Education-Oatly rider through the final climb, but there was no budging the 24-year-old, who unlocked some more power now that she was back in the hunt for victory. Rüegg was far from intimidated by being outnumbered; in fact, she labelled it a “perfect scenario.”
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