Daria Pikulik wins Women's Tour Down Under stage 1 sprint

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Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) won stage 1 of the 2023 Women’s Tour Down Under, crossing the line first at Snapper Point in Aldinga. After a hectic final where the peloton briefly split into echelons, The Polish sprinter was fastest in the sprint, coming off the wheel of Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) and taking the lead 75 metres from the line to win a bike length ahead of Copponi and Georgia Baker (Team Jayco-AlUla).

“The team didn’t have a WorldTour win, and now I am the first one in the team with a WorldTour win. It means a lot for me and for the team, and we are really happy. I can’t believe it, for me it is a dream come true. I’m just a Polish girl, now I am in the WorldTour and win this race. I want to thank all my teammates, they did a really good job – we will have some champagne today,” an overjoyed Pikulik promised celebrations at the dinner table.

She explained that her track background helped her in the final: “I am also a track rider, I have won medals in the omnium, and track riders have this strength. A finish like this, with the wind and very tactical, is difficult, but it makes it easier for me,” said Pikulik.

As the stage 1 winner, Pikulik is also the first overall leader, 4 seconds ahead of Copponi, and will wear the ochre leader’s jersey on stage 2, a more challenging stage in the Adelaide Hills.

“We have Nina [Buijsman] and Antri [Christoforou], our climbers, who we will ride for tomorrow. I am also good on smaller climbs, but we have a really hard day coming up. I will try my best to keep the jersey tomorrow,” she finished.

How it happened

After the sign-in in Glenelg, the peloton of 77 riders went south. A first crash in the neutral zone forced Elizabeth Stannard (Zaaf Cycling Team) to abandon before the flag had dropped for the 100.4-kilometre stage.

The headwind on the first 20 km discouraged breakaways, but when the route turned inland, a front group of 16 riders formed when an echelon bridged to a front duo that had attacked a little while earlier. But as no team had more than two riders in the group and the wind direction wasn’t ideal, the race came together again.

Again, the strong wind meant that no breakaway could establish itself, and Gladys Verhulst (FDJ-SUEZ) won the day’s only QOM sprint on Chaffeys Climb and will wear the polka-dot jersey on stage 2. Her teammate Grace Brown used her power to win the first intermediate sprint in Willunga, taking three bonus seconds ahead of Alex Manly and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (both Team Jayco-AlUla).

After going through the finish with 39 km to go, Isabelle Carnes (ARA Skip Capital) and Gina Ricardo (Team BridgeLane) went on the attack and built a gap of up to two minutes. Tiril Jørgensen (Team Coop-Hitec Products) and Dilyxine Miermont (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) tried to get across to the front duo but never made it and were eventually caught by the peloton as it took up the chase.

At the second intermediate sprint in Willunga, 17.2 km from the finish, the advantage of Carnes and Ricardo had dropped to 50 seconds, and they were reeled in at the ten-kilometre mark, just as the course turned left into a crosswind section.

Trek-Segafredo pushed hard and opened up gaps in the peloton, putting four riders in a front group of 12 that also included four Jayco-AlUla riders as well as Nicole Frain (UniSA-Australia) Copponi, Pikulik, and her teammate Lily Williams.

The chasing riders managed to close the gap when the road turned again, turning the crosswind into a tailwind, and the peloton entered the final four kilometres along the coast together. Trek-Segafredo, Jayco-AlUla, and FDJ-SUEZ lined up their sprint trains, but no one team could keep control of the race.

Going into the final kilometre, Williams and Kaia Schmid positioned Pikulik well while Maggie Coles-Lyster (Zaaf Cycling Team) and Ally Wollaston (New Zealand) had also made their way to the front. Roseman-Gannon led out Baker while Loes Adegeest cranked up the speed for Copponi, and Amanda Spratt (Trek-Segafredo) came up on the right-hand side. Pikulik waited for the right moment to jump and timed her sprint perfectly to win the stage.

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