Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek) won the Schwalbe Women’s One Day Classic on Sunday, taking out the new 1.Pro race run alongside the Tour Down Under in South Australia. The French rider pulled off a perfect sprint and a standout celebration when she crossed the line to victory.
Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) took second and Rachele Barbieri (Picnic PostNL) was third in the bunch sprint.
How it unfolded
The women’s Tour Down Under may have wrapped up a week ago but the competition was still on, with a 1.Pro race joining the fray this year. The relatively flat 90km race, run over 20 laps of a 4.5km circuit that has just 50m of elevation gain per lap provided the teams who had come out for the WorldTour race the opportunity to sweep up some extra points. It also delivered an opportunity for two of the strongest domestic teams, Butterfields Ziptrak and Praties Cycling.
The race in central Adelaide was held on the same course and over the same distance as the final men’s stage of the Tour Down Under, which would begin soon after the women’s finish. The hot weather was back again for the women’s racing, with a top temperature of 37°C making it a warm day of racing even though the early start would mean the women’s peloton escaped the worst of it.
It wasn’t the start key favourite Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) was hoping for, a crash putting both her and ProVelo Super League leader Talia Appleton (Praties Cycling) on the back foot. They had a chase on their hands but Wollaston’s teammates were there to help her back into the field.
The first sprint points were up for grabs with 72km to go and it was aggressive racing but Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Jayco-AlUla) looked to have it under control until Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) charged through from behind to grab top points.
It also wasn’t the end of Wollaston’s woes, the rider having to drop off the back again with a mechanical five laps in and with Jayco-AlUla throwing rider after rider off the front there was no easy chase back on. Wollaston had to burn valuable teammates to return at 55km to go after an extended chase.
The moves kept coming and being quickly pulled back but then at 38km, a solid break of 6 formed, with Gaia Masetti (AG Insurance-Soudal) among those driving the pace, though riders kept jumping over the gap and ultimately it wasn’t so much a break but a split up peloton.
Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) then leapt off the front and was joined by Silke Smulders (Jayco-AlUla) and Simone Boilard (Uno-X). They stretched the gap and through the 11th lap of 20 Ruth Winder (Human Powered Health) joined them up the front. They were, however, pulled back and then Amber Pate (Jayco-AlUla) and Greta Marturano (UAE Team ADQ) soon took their turn to leap.
The duo stretched the gap out to 28 seconds, creating the most established break to date which kept rolling through, a gap of 20 seconds as they began their 16th lap. As the laps ticked down they were being drawn closer, caught with less than four laps to go.
It was all together with two laps to go and then Chloe Dygert (Canyon-Sram zondacrypto) flew out of the field at around 7km to go and Rachele Barbieri (Picnic PostNL) jumped in the slipstream and held on for the ride. The pursuit was on, putting pressure on the field as Jayco-AlUla drove the pace, and then the catch came at around 3.5km to go.
It was then time for the final attacks to roll before the sprinter’s teams got set for the final dash to the line, where Copponi would pull off a masterclass in both sprinting and celebrations.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
