Winder wins Santos Women’s Tour Down Under

US champion Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) secured overall victory at the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under, Sunday.

Simona Frapporti (BePink) won the final stage of the race, a criterium in Adelaide. Winder did enough to defend her overnight GC lead of seven seconds from Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) and Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott).

“That race was pretty crazy,” said Winder. “I still need time to understand I’ve won. Mitchelton-Scott and Sunweb are strong so we’re happy to pull it off and celebrate.”

Winder’s GC victory came off the back of her stage win on Saturday.

“I’m still really excited after the stage I won yesterday,” she said. “It’s such an incredible feeling. It’s not a single person’s sport. For every win, you need a strong team. I wish my team-mates could accompany me on the podium.”

With time bonuses available for the three intermediate sprints through the 43km race, Trek-Segafredo had to stay on the alert through the city center criterium, marking out rival teams Sunweb and Mitchelton-Scott through the race.

Spratt and Lippert were able to grab handfuls of seconds over Winder through the sprints, but they weren’t able to do enough to overhaul the seven-second gap, with 26-year-old Winder winning the overall by five seconds over Lippert, with Spratt a further second back in third. Winder’s win denied Spratt a fourth-straight victory in the race.

The stage was won by Frapporti from a breakaway that went away mid-race. She attacked from the group of ten in the closing stages, beating Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank) and Rushlee Buchanan (Vantage New Zealand) in a final sprint.

Final GC after stage 4:

1. Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo)
2. Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb): +0:00:05
3. Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott): +0:00:06