Powless scenario for Noemi Rüegg as she beats three UAE riders to win Tour Down Under again

The third and last stage was 126.5 km from Norwood to Campbelltown, a hard day built around the Corkscrew climb which had to be climbed twice. 

The early kilometres were calm, before the first attacks started to ripple through the bunch. Eventually Carina Schrempf (Fenix Premier Tech) managed to get clear, with Mikayla Harvey (SD Worx Protime) joining her soon after. They stayed out front for most of the day, sweeping up the bonus seconds at the intermediate sprints while the peloton kept them on a long leash.

As the race approached the first Corkscrew and the gap had grown to four minutes, the tone changed. EF Education-Oatly, UAE Team ADQ and Lidl-Trek moved to the front and started to bring the break back under control. Positioning became tense at the base, and once the road pitched up, the climb did the rest.

The climb did the rest. The pace was brutal straight away and GC leader Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-SUEZ) was one of the first big names to slip off. Up ahead, the GC group formed quickly. UAE Team ADQ had numbers, with Mavi Garcia and Dominika Włodarczyk there, and EF Education-Oatly had Rüegg. Sarah Van Dam (Visma | Lease a Bike) also made it into the front selection. 

After the crest, Włodarczyk, Garcia and Van Dam got clear together and worked well. Behind, a chase group formed with Rüegg trying to limit the damage, and Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) there as another card for her team as the race started to come back together.

The sprint in Campbelltown on the first passage brought more bonus seconds for Van Dam, and then UAE Team ADQ began to play their numbers. The attacks came in quick bursts, Garcia waited on, and Włodarczyk was the one who finally slipped free. 

Van Dam and Garcia were later brought back as the chase group grew, with EF Education-Oatly and Lidl-Trek doing much of the work to close the gap to Włodarczyk.

For a while it looked like she might pull it off, hovering around half a minute as the kilometres ticked down and the road rose again toward the final Corkscrew. But on the second ascent, it all snapped back into one race. 

The chasers hit the climb hard and Rüegg closed it down herself, jumping across and dragging the group with her. By the top it was four riders together, Rüegg with the three UAE riders Garcia, Blasi, and Włodarczyk hanging on but looking spent after the earlier effort.

From there it was simple, but not easy. The three UAE riders kept trying to open it on the way to the line, but the impressive Rüegg followed everything and took them to the sprint. Blasi launched first, but Rüegg came past cleanly to win the stage. Garcia took second, Blasi third, and Rüegg stepped back into the ochre jersey to seal the overall for the second year running.

Tomorrow the Tour Down Under continues with the men’s race, starting with a 3.6 km prologue in Adelaide.