Two days of the Santos Tour Down Under, two days that have confounded expectation.
On stage 1 it was a solo rider staying away on a day that seemed certain to end in a sprint. Today, on the queen stage to Willunga Hill, it was an all-European podium on a day where the climbers from Australia and New Zealand were expected to shine.
It wasn’t just that the mercury soared to more than 35 ºC (95 ºF) – a far cry from the freezing temperatures many European riders left behind to come here. The TDU is also just so early in the year – and a relatively minor race – that the top European riders don’t tend to come here with the sort of form to challenge local riders who are more motivated on home roads.
Today, though, Swiss champion Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) challenged that narrative. Just six days after landing in Australia, the 23-year-old sailed across the Willunga finish line first, dispatching the pre-race favourites in the process, and took the overall lead.
Rüegg came into the picture with 2.5 km to go on the stage, near the bottom of the second and final ascent of the iconic Willunga Hill. Two of the favourites had been up the road – Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) and Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) – after Fisher-Black attacked from the very bottom of the 3 km ascent. Dutchwoman Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) had bridged across too, so when Rüegg joined the lead, just four riders seemed to be in contention.
Rüegg looked the least comfortable of the four. Where Fisher-Black and Bradbury appeared smooth and calm, Rüegg wrestled with her bike, seemingly on her limit. On TV commentary Matt Keenan remarked that “Rüegg isn’t pedalling – she’s kicking the bike up the climb.”
And yet, when Smulders attacked with around 1 km to go, it wasn’t Fisher-Black or Bradbury that followed – only Rüegg was able to. The two Europeans were showing up the local favourites.
And then Rüegg was alone.
“We were only with two left, and the girl [Smulders] attacked,” Rüegg said post-race. “I followed her, and then I just went by myself. And I thought first, ‘Oh shit, this was too early. I cannot keep going like this.’ But then I looked back and I had the gap, so I had no other choice. I had to just keep going.”
Rocking and rolling on the bike, Rüegg battled on to take the stage win 10 seconds ahead of Smulders. A late surge from Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) from the group behind saw the Norwegian champ come around for third place, as Bradbury sprinted to fourth and Fisher-Black drifted to ninth.
Rüegg admits that she surprised herself today.
“I still can’t really believe what happened today,” she said. “We went with this goal … that we win the stage with either Kim [Cadzow] or me. But yeah, to really finish it off is crazy.”
Where some European riders headed to warmer climes in preparation for TDU, Rüegg opted to stay in Switzerland for the entire winter, training in the cold and doing regular heat training sessions.
“Just one hour each day, and with some raincoats and winter beanie to make sure you’re sweating a lot,” she said of her approach. “It turns out that this preparation is also pretty good.”
While EF Oatly Cannondale were the big winners on the day, it was a different story over at Lidl-Trek. The team came in with two of the big favourites for the stage and the tour overall – Fisher-Black and three-time winner Amanda Spratt – and they raced accordingly.
On the first of the two Willunga ascents, Fisher-Black hit the front straight away and set a strong tempo – no mean feat given the Kiwi had crashed heavily just 20 km earlier. Together, Spratt and Fisher-Black led up the entire climb, quickly dropping overnight leader Daniek Hengeveld (Ceratizit-WNT) and shredding the peloton to just 20 riders by the top. Even that was a bigger group than they’d hoped for.
“There was a tailwind up there today,” Fisher-Black said at the finish. “When you are going faster up a climb, it’s more more easy in the wheels. That’s just how it goes.”
There were many attacks after that first climb and on the approach to the final ascent, and it was Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) that led into the stage-ending ascent. But just as she did the first time up, Fisher-Black came to the front as soon as the climb began, and tried to get away, quickly passing Dygert.
Soon it was just her and Bradbury and it looked like the stage was going to be won by one of the local climbers, as most expected. But then Smulders and Rüegg came across.
Speaking to reporters just past the finish, her jersey and knicks ripped from her earlier crash, Fisher-Black’s disappointment was clear to see. Seemingly on the verge of tears, the 24-year-old climber said that while she looked strong, she “didn’t really have the legs” she needed to capitalise on Lidl-Trek’s proactive ride. She also would have preferred the climb to be steeper.
“I tried to take my chance on the steep part, on the bottom,” she said. “But as I say, you see it more and more with women’s cycling now that when the speeds start going up on the climbs, 5-6% it’s not enough to make a difference anymore.”
Bradbury, too, was left disappointed, telling Escape that “fourth isn’t what we came here for.” Where Fisher-Black and Spratt had taken the race on, Bradbury had appeared happy to bide her time, waiting until 1.1 km to go to make her one and only move. There’s a reason she waited.
“Because I was suffering,” she said with a chuckle. “If I had the legs I would have went earlier, but I didn’t, so I waited a little bit. I think it also backfired in the end anyway.” The Giro d’Italia stage winner couldn’t match the pace of Smulders and Rüegg in the crucial moment.
Given her chance again, Bradbury says she might have waited a little longer to make her move; “until 700 meters to go, where it got a little bit steeper.”
Noemi Rüegg might not be a name terribly familiar to more-casual viewers of the sport, but for those more invested, she’s an emerging rider with considerable potential. Now into her second year with EF Education-Oatly after joining the WorldTour in 2022 with Jumbo-Visma, the young Swiss rider is improving every season.
In 2024 she won her very first race of the year – a lumpy Spanish one-day race – took sixth overall at the Vuelta a Burgos, won the Swiss road title, then snared an impressive seventh in the Paris Olympics road race. Her win today is her first in a WorldTour race, and gives her a very real chance of taking home the overall title after tomorrow’s final stage. She leads the race by 15 seconds ahead of Smulders, with Ottestad at 33 seconds and a total of 13 riders within a minute.
The final stage is far from a processional finale. It’s a tough day of laps around the deceptively tricky Stirling circuit, with more climbing even than today’s double-Willunga day. Rüegg is confident that she can convert today’s stage win into overall success.
“Tomorrow is going to be a really hard stage,” she admitted. “It’s also going to be super hot again, so I think we just have to stay calm and in control, follow big breakaways.
“I think the stage should suit me really well. It’s always up and down. No rest. I’ll just try to keep staying with my team. I think we have it under control. We proved that we are really a strong team. And if we stick together, then we can do great things.”
Spratt doesn’t think it’s a done deal yet.
“I think it’s a hard course to defend a jersey, and I think that’ll be quite difficult,” the Australian said. “I expect it to be very aggressive. I’m sure we’re going to be aggressive, and I think it’s going to be really exciting.
“I certainly think the gaps are not huge on GC, so I don’t think it’s really set in stone yet.”
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