Santos Women’s Tour Down 2018 Preview

Jan 10
cyclical

The Santos Women’s Tour Down Under moves up a rung on the UCI ladder to 2.1 status for 2018, and offers the peloton a chance to unship Michelton-Scott as de facto owners of the race. Katrin Garfoot and Amanda Spratt took the titles in the first two years, and the former Orica-AIS team will be desperate to keep the ochre winner’s jersey in-house.

The Australian nationals didn’t go the way of the powerhouse favorites who arrived stacked with potential champions and ended with Spratt in fourth as their best performer, but she has the pedigree to bounce back and stamp herself on this race. The Uni-SA team could be their biggest rivals, and are basically a composite of the best Aussie pro riders not contracted to Michelton-Scott (Garfoot, Gillow, Neylan, Cromwell, Kitchen, Hanson) while the new green-and-gold champion Shannon Malseed rides for her Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank squad.

There is a stack of top World Tour teams (Wiggle-High5, Alé Cipollini, Cylance, Waowdeals, Virtu, BePink-Cogeas) and a raft of committed domestic squads, which include Holden Tem Gusto Racing hosting Carlee Taylor in her final event before retiring.

The race and route

We have four stages as the women tackle a stand-alone event before the men race from Tuesday 16th. The total race distance hits 386.1 kilometers, with Stage one (115.7kms) comprising two out-and-back loops in the Adelaide hills which starts and finishes in Gumercha, and takes in the mountain sprint on Cyanide Climb out by Mount Torrens. There’s nothing on the profile to suggest that Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) should be unduly troubled and the last ten kilometres or so are all downhill towards a fast finish.

 

Stage two covers 102 kilometers from Lyndoch, with two loops around Sandy Creek and Williamstown which includes a mountain sprint at Whispering Wall, and then heads through the Barossa Valley to a figure-of-eight twist around Greenock. The second mountain sprint is at the finish line, up Mengler’s Hill, after three or four kilometers of steady ascent and should suit an Amanda Spratt-type puncheur.

 

Stage three, the longest at 122.4 kilometers, leaves the Bend Motorsport Park and heads north-west towards the finish in Hahndorf. The first half of the stage is fairly gentle, but the second part is much lumpier. The mountain sprint comes on the Comet Mine Climb, two kilometres from the line, before a sharp descent and then a short and nasty blast up to the finish. It might be that experience is as important as power, and a European-based pro such as Annemiek Van Vleuten, Gracie Elvin or Tiff Cromwell may prevail. The overall picture should be sorted by the close of play.

 

Stage four should be a largely celebratory early evening charge through Adelaide as the race forms part of the People’s Choice Classic. We’ve got more primes (four) than corners (three), so this will be a lightning-fast race and might suit Wiggle-High5’s new recruit Rachele Barbieri, who helped Kirsten Wild to two stage wins last year, or Hosking again.

 

Although not in the World Tour (yet), the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under is an important chance for the women to both race in a well-organised event and enjoy better weather than in Europe; it also puts them front and center with a willing audience and a sport media hungry for racing after a three-month lay-off. For the bigger squads, it’s an opportunity to try out tactics, especially sprint trains, ahead of bigger targets to come.