Switzerland’s Noemi Ruegg protected her lead to win Australia’s Tour Down Under as American Olympic team pursuit champion Chloe Dygert surged to victory in the final stage yesterday.
Ruegg (EF Education-Oatly) kept pace with the leaders heading into the final sprint in hot conditions to cross the finish line in third place behind Dygert but enough to claim the opening race of the UCI World Tour season.
She became only the second non-Australian winner in eight editions of the women’s Tour Down Under.
Ruegg, 23, set up her overall victory with a powerful win in Saturday’s second stage to hold a 15-second buffer over Dutch rider Silke Smulders (Liv Jayco AlUla) heading into the decisive 105.9km final stage in the Adelaide Hills.
The Swiss rider claimed the overall ochre leader’s jersey by 13 seconds in 8hr 49min from Smulders with Norway’s Mie Bjorndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) third, 37 seconds behind the winner.
“It was quite a challenge today, they didn’t make it easy for us, they tried a lot of moves, especially in the last two laps,” Ruegg told reporters.
“I was super nervous the whole day, I really wanted to bring it home, my team were amazing, I could save all my energy early and focus on the last two laps of the stage.”
Dygert (Canyon-SRAM), who was part of the American gold medal-winning pursuit team at the Paris Olympics last year, swept to the front and held on to her advantage to win the final stage by one second from Smulders and Ruegg.
“We came here trying to get the GC (general classification) and a stage win, we worked really hard today to get that win,” Dygert said yesterday.
Alyssa Polites (ARA Australian Cycling Team) took the Queen of the Mountain title from Poland’s Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ).
The six-stage men’s Tour Down Under, in its 25th year, gets underway in Adelaide tomorrow.
Fan hospitalised after ‘awful’ crash at Tour Down Under
A fan was hospitalised with serious injuries after an “awful, freak” high-speed pile-up during Australia’s Tour Down Under cycling race, organisers said yesterday.
Video on social media showed a group of cyclists hitting the barricades on the last corner of the men’s classic sprint race around the Adelaide streets on Saturday.
One rider went over the top and into the crowd, with several spectators appearing to be thrown to the ground.
“Sadly, as a result of the collision, a female spectator suffered injuries and was taken to hospital, where she is currently being
treated,” organisers said in a statement.
“We are in contact with the spectator’s family and have offered our support.”
South Australia state Premier Peter Malinauskas told local media it was an “awful, freak accident”.
“Tragically last night we did see a significant accident occur at the TDU, where cyclists went into spectators,” he said.
“It’s saddening to report a woman has suffered multiple serious injuries.”
Australian race winner Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) said it was a “super-fast corner” with Italy’s Manlio Moro from the Movistar team among the riders that crashed.
Britain’s Matthew Brennan (Team Visma) saw the pile-up, which happened in front of him.
“It was quite chaotic,” he said.
“A lot of people were keen, it was the first race of the season and my team did a lot of work to keep me out of trouble and keep me safe.”
The sprint race was a prelude to the main men’s six-stage event, which starts tomorrow in the UCI World Tour season-opener.
The three-stage women’s race was won yesterday by Switzerland’s Noemi Ruegg.

EF Education-Oatly rider Noemi Ruegg from Switzerland celebrates with her trophy after being crowned overall winner of the Tour Down Under cycling race in Adelaide yesterday. (AFP)