Women’s Tour Down Under stage 1 – LIVE

Crosswinds when the riders crossed the finish line for the first intermediate sprint, in the opposite direction that they will take for the final dash to the line. 

Position fight between EF Education-Oatly and UAE Team ADQ  for the remaining time bonus seconds on the line.

UAE rider took second place.

Intermediate Sprint #1

Polites crosses the line first at the intermediate sprint #1 at the Esplanade (Snapper Point) at Finish Line, Aldinga Beach, and take three second time bonus seconds.

Ruth Edwards returned to full-time racing with Human Powered Health at the beginning of 2024 with standout performances that included a second place at the US National Championships and an overall victory at the Thüringen Ladies Tour.

With one solid season now under her belt, Edwards is looking to return to her pre-retirement form at the Tour Down Under, a race she won in 2020.

“I think it’s hard to come to a bike race and not have some ambitions to win on podium. I think for everybody coming in in January, everyone just wants to look at each other and see how form is looking. So we’ll kind of see how the first stage goes. And then I think everybody knows that Willunga tomorrow will be a big tell of how everyone’s doing.”

“My training has been going pretty well, minus a few lost days of training in LA – I was there before I flew right here to Australia. We have a lot of friends down the line. Yeah, some family. But that house is so far, okay, but it was pretty close to some of the devastation. Yeah, stressful.”

Gap has increased to 2:20 for Polites with 73km to go.

All attacks have been nullified by this solo move, as we wait for the upcoming intermediate sprint. 

Kiwi Ally Wollaston of FDJ-SUEZ, winner of stage 1 in last year’s race, was also talking about the possible winds in today’s stage before the start.

“Yeah, I’m really excited. This is one of my favorite races on the calendar. It’s pretty much a home race for me, so I love coming here every year, but I’m looking forward to another edition.

“I think today will be a really exciting day. It’s pretty windy out there today, and yeah, maybe not as flat, I think as I would have thought initially, so yeah, it should be really exciting today.”

Wollaston will be racing with her new team for the first time this year.

“I think it’s a really exciting change for me, always a challenge moving into a new environment, but I feel at home already. The girls have already been really supportive of me and yeah looking forward to going all in for the sprint today, so that’s really exciting. But, at the end of the day, he’s still, still doing the same old job, I’m just riding a bike today, so yeah, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Pilates has a lead of 1:15 on the peloton with 78km to go. The peloton seems happy to let her suffer in a solo move. 

Last week, 21-year old Alyssa Polites took the third and final spot in the U23 category, and finished tenth at the Australian Championships road race. 

Reaction from the peloton, led by Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team.  But the peloton has conceded the move, leaving Polites solo off the front with 81.8km to go.

Another attack by ARA, this time it’s Alyssa Polites who makes a solo move.

Attack at 84km to go

ARA Australian National Team rider attacks at the front, causing splits in the fiel. UNO-X and Liv AlUla Jayco reacted immediately.

Human Powered Health’s Barbara Malcotti at her team car, getting her radio fixed. 

 Three-time overall champion Amanda Spratt  of Lidl-Trek on the Women’s Tour Down Under:

“I’ve been out in Australia since the beginning of November, and I’d like to say my summer training has gone very well. Yeah, I’m really happy with where I’m at. I think I felt really, really strong at Nationals, which was a good sign. And I think I’m coming in here with some really good shape. So I’m especially looking forward to racing with Niamh Fisher-Black on the climbing stages, and going for the GC with her.

“Our goal here is to try and win the GC and win a stage. And I think with Niamh and I, we have two really strong climbers. So yeah, we want to, we want to play off that first time racing together. But I’m really excited for it. I think we complement each other very well.”

“It [stage 1] does look like a sprint stage, but there’s also some winds, so we need to be aware of potential crosswinds, but I’m excited we have Clara Copponi here. She came in second last time we finished at Aldinga Beach, so I think she’s going to be our big option for today.”

90km to go

 Peloton together, spread across the road.

Less than 30km to go to the first intermediate sprint, set to take place through the Snapper Point finish at Aldinga Beach. For this pass, the peloton will head south, the opposite direction to their final push to the line later today.

The Santos Women’s Tour Down Under barely resembles the race it was when it officially first started in 2016 as a 2.2 UCI-ranked event, spawned from what was effectively a collection of criteriums.

Read more in Evolution of the Women’s Tour Down Under – ‘This is the hardest tour that we’ve seen’ from  Australia editor Simone Giuliani

Plenty of big names were out to watch the start of racing at Tour Down Under as they set off- Mark Cavendish, Grace Brown – her first year on the sidelines after pinning on a number at the event since 2017, and UCI President David Lappartient.

Two riders on the start list did not start today: Marit Raaijmakers  Human Powered Health and Anouska Koster of UNO-X Mobility.

So 82 riders tool the start.

Peloton together as riders hugging the left side of the road. Will the wind be a factor today?

Though the overall Women’s Tour Down Under route caters to the climbers with back-to-back climbs over the iconic Willunga Hill as the centre-piece of the three-day event, today’s stage should favour the sprinters.

Today, opportunists will be hunting for points in the lone Queen of the Mountain, the ascent of Heatherdale Hill midway through the stage.

Flag drop by race director Stuart O’Grady and racing is underway for stage 1 of the Women’s Tour Down Under. Ocean vistas await as the peloton travels along Jetty Road in Brighton, the route then will trace the coast en route to the Fleurieu Peninsula before a fast finish at Snapper Point in Aldinga.

Talk about possible crosswinds in pre-race interview. More on that later.

The riders now head out of the 3.8km neutral zone.

Racing will start in around 10 minutes for stage 1 of the Women’s Tour Down Under from Brighton to Snapper Point for a total of 101.9km.

Sunshine and blue skies for the start in Brighton, which has ocean views and pine trees lining the road.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2025 Women’s Santos Tour Down Under. The toughest edition of the South Australian three-day stage race opens a new season of the Women’s WorldTour.