Like every year, it is Santos Tour Down Under which launches the women’s and men’s WorldTour calendars for this 2025 season… and the women were the first to return this Friday night, due to the time difference with Australia. To inaugurate this 9th edition of the Aussie event, the runners started from Brighton for a 1st stage 101.9 km long and relatively flat – with the exception of the climb of Heatherdale Hill (8.4 km at 3.6%) at mid-race – which unexpectedly did not end with a massive sprint , but by the surprise victory of Daniek Hengeveld ! Going out solo more than 40 miles from the finish, the young 22-year-old Dutchwoman was able to take advantage of the three minutes of lead offered by a poorly organized peloton to achieve the first number of the year and achieve her first WorldTour success. . What a start to the season!
Video – Summary of the 1st stage won by Daniek Hengeveld
Ally Wollaston settles the peloton sprint, 2 French women in the top 10
After two years without great results at the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, Daniek Hengeveld therefore offered himself the most beautiful victory of his career in the most beautiful way, on his first day of racing under his new colors of the CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling Team. Trapped by the riding qualities of the former track enthusiast, the peloton crossed the line 36 seconds behind.
Already winner of the 1st stage last year, the New Zealander Ally Wollaston (FDJ-SUEZ) almost did it again and settled the sprint for 2nd place in front of the Austrian Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health), la Canadienne Sarah Van Dam (Ceratizit Pro Cycling Team) and the Italian Rachele Barbieri (Team Picnic PostNL). The French Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek) et India Grangier (Team Coop-Repsol) entered the top 10 with respective 8th and 9th places. In the general ranking, Daniek Hengeveld logically takes the lead with a 43″ margin over his runner-up of the day and dons the first ocher jersey of this 2025 edition!
Santos Tour Down Under (F) – Ranking of the 1st stage
Santos Tour Down Under (F) – Provisional general classification after the 1st stage
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