At the beginning of the second ascent of Willunga Hill on stage 2 of the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under, all eyes may have been on two key favourites with the early attack of Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) quickly followed by Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) but EF Education-Oatly’s Noemi Rüegg was not far behind, biding her time.
“I went into the climb in a good position, and they actually accelerated from the bottom, and there I had a little gap, so I couldn't immediately follow,” Rüegg told reporters post-stage.
The field had already splintered on the first charge over shaving the lead group, that also included Rüegg’s teammate Kim Cadzow, down to an ebbing and flowing collection of around 18 riders.
The heat, however, was on through the approach to the second climb with Bradbury’s Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto teammate Chloe Dygert using her considerable time trial skills to jump off the front and toughen the lead in.
Once the base of the climb hit, Fisher-Black was quick to take off and Bradbury was just as quick to chase, with the powerful duo for a moment looking like they might have just made the winning move, but not this time.
“I knew, the beginning of the climb is the hardest part for me because it's the steepest part so I knew I'd just do my own pace and try to close this gap in my own rhythm, which I did,” said Rüegg of the climb where there are sections that approach and exceed a gradient of 10% in the first half but that eases to around 7% in the second half.
First Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) closed the gap to the leading pair and then Rüegg, but then it was the riders who chased the leading pair down who replaced them at the front of the race. Bradbury attacked at 1km to go but Smulders and Rüegg were not only up to the response but then went off on their own, but that pairing didn’t last long either.
“She attacked, and I just followed her, and then I went by myself,” said Rüegg. “At first, I thought, ‘Oh no, this was too early; I can’t keep going like this,’ but then I looked back, and I had a gap, so I had no other choice. I just had to keep going and was able to keep it to the line.”
As Rüegg crossed the line ahead of Smulders, she secured not only her first Women's WorldTour win but also the ochre jersey of the overall race leader. With just one stage to go in the three-stage race she has a lead of ten seconds on her nearest rival, Smulders.
"I'm pretty confident after today, actually," said the Swiss champion when asked how she felt about Sunday's 105.9km stage to Stirling, which includes 2,142m of climbing. "I felt really good today, and I have so much trust in my team. They were amazing."
