Unheralded Polish bicycle owner Daria Pikulik has usurped the highest groups to win the historic opening stage of the ladies’s Tour Down Below.
The 26-year-old observe specialist timed her dash to perfection on Sunday to take out the stage at Aldinga Seashore, south of Adelaide, and declare the general lead.
It’s the first time the ladies’s Santos Tour Down Below has had World Tour standing.
The win was additionally a banner second for Pikulik, making her World Tour debut in her first race with the American-based Human Powered Well being crew.
She pumped her fist in elation after beating Italian Clara Coppini (FDJ-Suez) to the road, with Australian Commonwealth Video games gold medalist Georgia Baker (Jayco-AlUla) third.
FDJ, Jayco-AlUla and Trek Segafredo are the strongest groups within the ladies’s Tour this 12 months and so they had been outstanding within the closing kilometers because the peloton raced by way of sturdy crosswinds.
Pikulik, who had not been sighted all through the stage, then timed her dash to perfection.
She tore by way of the center of the high-speed end to assert the 110.4-kilometer stage from Glenelg to Aldinga.
Her earlier finest consequence was on the observe, profitable a bronze within the omnium on the 2020 world championships, and Pikulik is unlikely to carry onto her total lead for the remainder of the three-day tour.
Not one of the prime total hopes misplaced any time, with star Trek-Segafredo recruit Amanda Spratt ending fifth and FDJ’s Grace Brown additionally trying sturdy through the stage and ending 20th, in the primary bunch.
Australian Keely Bennett (Group Bridgelane) is out of the race after crashing closely about 30 kilometers into the stage.
The suitable shoulder of her jersey was ripped aside, however Bennett sat up quickly after hitting the street at velocity.
Lower than every week after profitable the under-23 Australian time-trial championship, Isabelle Carnes (ARA Skip Capital) once more showcased her kind with a powerful trip.
She and Bennett’s teammate Gina Ricardo broke away and with 30 kilometers left, led the peloton by as a lot as two minutes.
However the prime groups stored them beneath management and caught the duo with 10 kilometers left as crosswinds buffeted the riders.
New Zealand crew rider Ally Wollaston, who received Saturday’s twilight avenue race within the Adelaide CBD, completed sixth.
The ladies’s and males’s Tour Down Below races are getting back from two years off the World Tour schedule due to COVID-19.
The ladies’s tour runs for 3 days, whereas the six-day males’s race will begin late on Tuesday afternoon with a prologue time-trial.
