It was all about the double header of the brutal Corkscrew climb with a very aggressive final 20km coming down to four riders to sprint for the win in Campbelltown, with the defending champion, Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) beating three UAE Team ADQ riders to win stage three and overall of the Women’s Tour Down Under 2026.
For all the world after the first time up the climb, it looked like it would be between Mavi Garcia, Dominika Włodarczyk (both UAE Team ADQ) and Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) but the UAE Team ADQ riders ganged up on Van Dam, and Włodarczyk went clear.
But it all went back together on the second ascent with Rüegg catching Włodarczyk with Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) and Garcia with it coming down to Rüegg vs UAE Team ADQ and the Swiss rider came out on top.
"Honestly, I can't believe it. I'm totally overwhelmed. We wanted to defend the title but it is always harder to defend. My team was amazing, they believed in me more than I [did],” Rüegg said.
“Magdeleine (Vallieres) was amazing, and I didn’t believe it was possible after the first climb. I played the game and, yeah, I'm super stoked. I knew they would attack me; it was the only chance they had. I just had to follow immediately; I knew I had a good sprint. They kind of did the leadout for me which was good.”
It was a day in the January summer sun in Australia, with the temperatures in the low 30s yet again for the riders to deal with. Two riders, Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Mikayla Harvey (SD Worx-Protime) were in the break for most of the day. They held on up until the first ascent of the Corkscrew climb, where the GC fight exploded with race leader, Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-Suez), dropping almost immediately.
The final standings saw Rüegg take the ochre jersey ahead of Garcia and Blasi on the podium. The QOM jersey went to 22-year-old Blasi, the points jersey was kept by Wollaston on countback over Rüegg as they tied on 65 points, and the white best young rider jersey stayed with Justyna Czapla (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto).
How it unfolded
The third and final stage of the opening race in the Women’s WorldTour began in Norwood before the riders headed over 126.5km to Campbelltown with three categorised climbs, including two ascents of the brutal Corkscrew with its average gradient of 9.7%. Several riders abandoned the race by the final stage, with 10 riders leaving the race the prior day of racing.
It was a very steady start after the riders left Norwood and the 10 km-long neutral. No moves came at all until the riders reached the first queen of the mountains sprint of the day. Kangaroo Creek Reservoir was a 1.9km climb with an average gradient at around 5% and a maximum kick of 13.3%. Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) left it very late but took the seven points to extend her lead in the QOM classification with Margaux Vigié (Visma-Lease a Bike), Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) and Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Premier Tech) completing the top four.
Immediately after the climb there was an acceleration led by Schrempf with the likes of Blasi, Koster, Vigié and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Lidl-Trek) and several others. However, Visma-Lease a Bike worked hard to drag it back together again. This saw chaos begin in the bunch with wave after wave of attacks coming before a cloak of control fell over the peloton again thanks to Liv-AlUla-Jayco taking up the pace setting.
A few more kilometres rolled by before the next move. It was another kick by the former Austrian national champion Schrempf. The Fenix-Premier Tech rider surprised the bunch and she got clear on her own with around 109km to go. The gap grew rapidly as the peloton sat up, allowing a solo move away for a third day in a row.
However, a new move came in the bunch by Koster with Mackenzie Coupland (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto), Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek), Flora Perkins (Fenix-Premier Tech), Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal), Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime) and several other riders joining but Picnic-PostNL dragged them back again. Schrempf did manage to hold them off.
Moments later, another move came from Mikayla Harvey (SD Worx-Protime) followed by Rosita Reijnhout (Visma-Lease a Bike). They looked to have a good gap but, suddenly, Reijnhout sat up and returned to the peloton leaving Harvey to chase Schrempf down solo. It looked like the Dutch rider was called back by the team over the radio. Several more moves were attempted in the bunch with the umpteenth move from Koster, among others, but nothing stuck.
The first intermediate sprint of the day at Birdwood saw the three and two bonus seconds swept up by the break, with Schrempf leading Harvey across the line. This left just one bonus second available for the peloton, with race leader Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-Suez) taking it despite being tested by Movistar and AG Insurance-Soudal. Straight after this a new move came by Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) but it was marked out immediately by Marie Le Net (FDJ United-Suez).
AG Insurance-Soudal, Picnic-PostNL, Lidl-Trek, EF Education-Oatly and UAE Team ADQ were the teams that took on the pace sharing in the peloton with 90km to go as the two women up the road took their gap to two minutes. Around 10km later and the break had doubled their advantage to four minutes on the peloton. It took the gap going out to almost six minutes for the peloton to get organised with EF Education-Oatly, UAE Team ADQ and Lidl-Trek on the front to bring the gap down to the leaders.
At the second intermediate sprint, which took place in Woodside, the break took the first two spots with Harvey taking the three bonus seconds and Schrempf the two. Back in the pack, it was another intense battle with Carys Lloyd (Movistar) taking the single bonus second by launching early and catching Wollaston by surprise. What is more surprising is that, shortly after coming third in the intermediate sprint, Lloyd then abandoned.
The DS for Fenix-Premier Tech really tried to hype up the two riders in the break and motivated them to go full gas for the next 10km after the intermediate sprint. This was because they still had five minutes. The gap, however, was slowly being chipped away by the chasing bunch led by Elena Ivanchenko (UAE Team ADQ), Stina Kegevi (EF Education-Oatly) and Hanson.
A few riders took some risks on the descent that took the race towards the first time up the Corkscrew including Dygert who went very wide on a corner. Fortunately, everyone stayed up as the pace was being ramped up. Several teams were lined up in colour order to try and keep their various leaders safe and close to the front of the pack led by AG Insurance-Soudal, Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto, Lidl-Trek and EF Education-Oatly.
Thanks to the new investment at the front of the peloton, the gap dipped under a minute between the break and the bunch as they reached the bottom of the 2.4km-long Corkscrew climb with an average of 9.8%. Several riders were distanced very early on the climb, including Wollaston.
The pace in the peloton was rapid, with a group of elite GC riders getting a gap, including Mavi Garcia and Dominika Włodarczyk (both UAE Team ADQ), world champion Magdeleine Vallieres and Noemi Rüegg (both EF Education-Oatly), Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) and a few others got away and caught the break. Then, on one of the steepest sections, three riders went away: Włodarczyk, Garcia and Van Dam with a group of five riders in the chase group.
It was that leading trio that went over the top of the first passage of the Corkscrew, with all of them working well together on the descent into Campbelltown for the first time. The chasing group grew to seven riders Blasi, Vallieres, Rüegg, Harvey, Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez).
The final intermediate sprint in Campbelltown saw Van Dam take three bonus seconds, with Włodarczyk and Garcia taking two and one seconds. After this, the UAE Team ADQ riders just hit the young Canadian with constant attacks. Włodarczyk eventually got more of a gap. Garcia just sat on Van Dam’s wheel as she watched her teammate ride into the distance.
Van Dam and Garcia were caught by the chasers, which had grown in size as a group, with EF Education-Oatly and Lidl-Trek committing the most to the chase to try and bring Włodarczyk back. With 10km to go, the former Polish road race champion has about a 30” gap. She continued to lead onto the final ascent of the Corkscrew. Vallieres was the main rider leading up the climb in the chase.
Włodarczyk rode well on the climb but the attacks were led by Spratt as she looked for glory in her final Tour Down Under. She was dragged back by a Benito-led group. Rüegg, however, put in an explosive effort to get back across to Włodarczyk. However, the defending champion was joined by Garcia and Blasi, leaving the EF Education-Oatly rider with three UAE Team ADQ riders.
Garcia led over the top of the Corkscrew for the final time, but all four riders stayed together. Rüegg had to follow every single move as they plunged to the line in Campbelltown. The three UAE Team ADQ riders seemed unsure who would be the main rider to sprint as their fastest rider, Włodarczyk, was absolutely spent. Blasi eventually launched but Rüegg showed them all what real speed looks like as she stormed to a second overall title in a row as well as the stage win.
Focus now turns to the men’s side as they kick off their race tomorrow with a prologue. However, the women don’t get much rest as they are back racing on Wednesday in Tanunda for a 94.2km circuit race and then look towards the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong.
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