Santos Women's Tour: Wild wins Stage 2

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Cylance Pro Cycling went 1-2 in East End, Adelaide on the stage two of the Santos Women’s Tour with Kirsten Wild taking top honours in front of teammate Rachele Barbieri. Australian Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) rounded out the podium and moved into the sprint jersey.

“Amazing, huh?” Wild told reporters, including Cyclingnews, assembled in Victoria Park Racecourse immediately following her win. “It’s a good start. It might look easy. It wasn’t. It’s really special. It’s the first time we raced together except yesterday, and it really works.”

The 32.2-kilometre criterium is made up of 14 laps around a fast, flat 2.3-kilometre circuit. The lap suited the quickest in the field, and the stage is widely regarded as a shoo-in for the sprinters.

“Since I don’t have the best papers for the other stages, I thought, let’s take this one and the Tuesday one,” said Wild. “It’s really good to start the season with a win, with a new team, for me, it’s a new team. I think it’s really nice to start with a big win.”

Stage one winner Amanda Spratt (Orica-Scott) finished on bunch time to keep the ochre race leader’s jersey. Janneke Ensing (Alé Cipollini), second on Saturday’s stage, remains second overall at 19-seconds. Wild’s win and its accompanying bonus seconds saw her jump up to third overall, 50 seconds outside the race lead.

“It was quite hard, actually,” Spratt told journalists, including Cyclingnews, post-race. “It was pretty much straight from the gun there. It was not an easy race. The main aim was to save as much as possible and get through unscathed and ready for tomorrow, so mission achieved.”

With sprint points and bonus seconds (3, 2 and 1) available on laps four, eight and twelve, the intermediate sprints inspired much of the action. Hosking proved quickest on lap four and Lauren Kitchen, racing with the NSWIS Sydney Uni composite team, scooped up seconds on lap eight. Dani King (Cylance) won the third and final intermediate sprint.

“I tried the first one, but I didn’t want to put too much energy into it since the stage win is cooler,” said Wild. “For Dani, it’s really good to take some seconds in the GC.”

Between sprint laps, a number of teams sent riders up the road, but their efforts proved futile. No gap grew beyond a handful of seconds nor managed to last for more than a lap. The pace was too high during the final three laps for anyone to escape.

“I was together the whole time with Marta Tagliaferro and Dani King in the final,” said Wild. “In the last, I just went my own way.

“We worked really well together,” Wild added. “The lead-out did not work like we planned, but we stayed so much together. We planned with Rachele on me, and she finished second. It’s awesome.”

The Santos Women’s Tour continues on Monday with the race’s second road stage. The 92.4-kilometre day begins in Tanunda, finishes in Lyndoch and takes in two ascents of the Whispering Wall.

“We are confident that we can keep the jersey until the finish, and that’s obviously what we want to do, to win the overall, but tomorrow is still going to be a hard day,” said Spratt. “We raced on the circuit last year, and there were only seven at the finish. It’s forecasted to be a really hot day. Anything can happen, but we’re in a really strong position.”

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