Climbers Jersey for Dani at Tour Down Under 2016

First race of the year for Dani with her Wiggle-High 5 Team and it was a solid start.

 

After a winter’s training where it is difficult to gauge where your form is compared with your rivals, it’s always a good sign that you go well in your first race, which is exactly what Dani is doing.

 

Santos Women’s Tour

Stage 1 – 95km Road Race

After an attacking start to the race, Dani got away in a 5 strong break where she picked up King of the Mountains points to take the jersey, along with placing 3rd on the stage. A solid start, which set Dani and her Wiggle-High5 Team up at the sharp end of the race.

Stage 2 – 20km Circuit Race

It must be one of the shortest races on the calendar for professional road cyclists – at only 20km long, it was always going to be fast – and fast it was, averaging 44kmh.

The team plan was to go for the stage win as there was little chance of the General Classification (GC) changing much, so it was full gas for Annette Edmondson (Nettie), who was in a league of her own and took the stage win!

With no KOM points on offer – Dani also held on to the KOM jersey!

Stage 3 – 100km Road Race

With Dani’s Garmin Edge 1000 reading 44 degrees at 11am – it was officially a scorcher!

The race started very aggressively, with two breakaways of note escaping the peloton. Dani was in both breaks, ensuring she was in contention for the two sets of KOM points on offer for the day – Dani placed second over the first KOM line and won the second set of points which saw Dani retain the KOM jersey.

The second break of the day worked well together to build up an advantage of 4 minutes over the next group on the road which was enough time to allow the break to play cat and mouse – i.e. let the tactics commence. With Orica-AIS having three riders in the break, it was always a matter of time until they started the attacking, with the three riders taking it in turns to attack. The elastic finally snapped when Lizzie Williams of Orica-AIS went for it and held it to the finish line to take the stage win.

19 seconds back was Dani in a group of 5 who were sprinting for 2nd place on the stage. At 800metres to go, as Dani reacted, accelerating to follow an attack – her chain jammed, which saw her effectively do a ‘front flip’ over the handlebars and land head first in to the road. With a dizzy head and some lost skin, Dani got back on her bike to roll across the line to complete the stage. Dani’s helmet shown below…

As the crash was with only 800metres to go – Dani was given the same time as the breakaway. Dani now sits in 4th overall and holds the KOM jersey with one day remaining.

 

Luke starts the Santos Tour Down Under with Team Sky tomorrow, which is 6 days and runs until next Sunday, 24th January.

 

Thanks for reading!

Cycle Coaching, Cycling Coaching, Team Sky, Luke Rowe, Wiggle High5, Dani King