Australia - home of the first two events of the UCI Women’s WorldTour – has historically smiled upon daring new champions, ready to take their place in the limelight. This was again the case this year at the Santos Tour Down Under (17-19 January) and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Women (1st February).
Daniek Hengeveld (Ceratizit Pro Cycling Team) and Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) claimed their first UCI Women’s WorldTour successes in Australia, while Chloé Dygert (Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto) and Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) added more success to their records on the road, in addition to all their conquests on the track.
Stars of the early season now head to the UAE Tour Women (6-9 February), marked by the return to competition of stars such as Elisa Longo Borghini (starting a new chapter in her career with UAE Team ADQ), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (participating with Team Visma | Lease a Bike in her first UCI Women’s WorldTour event since 2018), Juliette Labous (with her new FDJ-Suez outfit)… Judging by the action so far, the thrills shall be aplenty!
Rüegg’s happiness and disbelief
The roads of the UCI Women’s WorldTour witnessed a magnificent bang as soon as the season started. When Hengeveld attacked with 50 kilometres to go to Snapper Point, few imagined the young Dutchwoman would resist the field on her own and win stage 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under.
“This is so different because it’s my first race after my crash last year on a new team and I lost a little bit of confidence after last year,’’ Hengeveld said after winning the stage 36’’ ahead of the field, led by Wollaston on the line. “I was finally racing like I was 18 and I thought ‘this is why I race’.”
Incredulity also struck the winner of stage 2, Rüegg, who tamed the emblematic slopes of Willunga Hill to claim victory: “I still can’t believe what happened today. I’m also a bit surprised as back in Switzerland it’s cold, I didn’t spend weeks in Spain but I also think this preparation is good. I trained a lot in the cold, and I also asked for some heat training. I always stayed healthy and had some good rides.”
It was a great ride that saw her take the leader’s jersey with a margin of 15’’ on another 23-year-old, Silke Smulders (Live AlUla Jayco). And Rüegg held on to the overall lead on the final hilly day around Stirling, where Dygert got the better of a reduced field led by Smulders and Rüegg. The young Swiss was, again, “super happy and in disbelief”.
Wollaston rises and shines
New Zealand’s Wollaston is more used to victory, especially on the track, with notable successes and accolades at the UCI World Championships and the Olympic Games. Hengeveld and the win escaped her on day 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under, but the Kiwi sprinter still found her way to triumph in the opening stages of a season that sees her join a new ambitious outfit, FDJ-Suez, to back her breakthrough year, 2024.
First, Wollaston outsprinted Dygert in the Surf Coast Classic (a 1.1 race, not part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour). Three days later, she smashed the competition in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, claiming her first UCI Women’s WorldTour one-day race a couple of years after she won a stage of the Santos Tour Down Under.
After a hilly finale, a dozen riders came together into the final straight… Smulders tried to anticipate the sprint but Wollaston was too strong. In her wake, Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) showed she’s ready for more after a strong step-up in 2024, and Rüegg rounded out the podium, again.
“Safe to say I’m already feeling at home in these colours,” Wollaston celebrated.
More and more triumphs await her and FDJ-Suez on the roads of the UCI Women’s WorldTour 2025.