The Women’s Tour Down Under kicks off the Women’s WorldTour this year and has become one of the most exciting events on the cycling calendar. Held in and around Adelaide during the height of the Australian summer, it’s a race that mixes tough competition with incredible support from local fans. For Australian riders, it’s a special opportunity to perform in front of friends and family, and they’ve made the most of it over the years. Big names like Sarah Gigante, Amanda Spratt, and Grace Brown have dominated the event, with Spratt winning three titles from 2017 to 2019. However, it hasn’t been all about the Aussies – American rider Ruth Edwards managed to break through for a win in 2020.
The race returned to the Women’s WorldTour in 2023 after a short break due to Covid and delivered unforgettable moments. That year, Grace Brown narrowly beat Amanda Spratt in the overall standings after a thrilling battle on the Corkscrew climb during the final stage. The following year, in 2024, the event made history by including the famous Willunga Hill for the first time, adding a new level of challenge to the race. Sarah Gigante rose to the occasion, claiming victory and proving her climbing credentials by setting a new QoM time in her efforts.
For the 2025 edition, which runs from January 17th to 19th, fans can expect another action-packed race. The route promises to stay true to the event’s style, with short but challenging stages that test every aspect of a rider’s skill set. With Willunga Hill now climbed twice on the 2nd stage, will that affect how things are raced compared to a previous blast up the hill at the end of the day? There are no easy stages for the sprinters, but plenty of gradual ascents will add up to lots of climbing metres by the end of the stage. Those are always a tough test on early-season legs. The question remains: will the Aussies continue their dominance, or could an international rider steal the show this year? Either way, the Women’s Tour Down Under is set to deliver three days of thrilling racing to start the season.
Previous Winners
2024
Sarah Gigante
2023
Grace Brown
2022
Not held
Women’s Tour Down Under 2025 Stage Profiles
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Live TV Coverage
Friday 17th January – Sunday 19th January 2025
Live on Discovery+/Eurosport/Max
7Plus in Australia (free to watch after signing up, will work with a VPN)
Stage 1: 00:30-04:00
Stage 2: 00:30-04:00
Stage 3: 00:30-04:15
All times in GMT
Twitter: #TourDownUnder
Startlist: FirstCycling
Women’s Tour Down Under 2025 Contenders
We won’t have Sarah Gigante here to retain her title but Justine Ghekiere will feel like she’s in with a chance. The Belgian finished off 2024 strongly with the Queen of the Mountains jerseys at both the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes, a stage win at the latter and then 7th at the World Championships as she helped deliver teammate Lotte Kopecky to another title. She will get some solid assistance from Julie van de Velde who was 7th herself in last year’s Tour Down Under whilst helping guide Gigante to the victory. The team can also look to home rider Alex Manly for stage wins. She climbs well for a sprinter and could be in for a shout of a first win since the 2023 edition of the Women’s Tour Down Under.
As a 3-time winner, Amanda Spratt will always be a contender at the Women’s Tour Down Under but this year will have to divide leadership with Niamh Fisher-Black. The Kiwi has joined Lidl-Trek this off-season and could make an immediate impact. A strong climber, she’s also got a bit of punch when it’s needed that could see her smash the field on Willunga Hill this year. Her Giro d’Italia Women stage win last year is a great example of it. Spratt was 4th here last season up against the younger generation and she can still finish in the top-10 herself this year, even if her younger teammate is the one taking the glory. Clara Copponi should be a threat in the sprints as well, as the French rider can get over climbs pretty well. The final stage will be touch and go potentially this early in the season, but she will be in the hunt.
Canyon SRAM zondacrypto looks like they’re here to mean business. The likes of Chloe Dygert and Maike van der Duin will be in the hunt for stage wins as both riders have fast finishes on tough stages. Potentially Dygert will get the nod over Maike Van der Duin if they’re both there and you only have to look at the World Championships last year to see that the American could end up with 2 stage wins here. She can’t be fully ruled out of the GC fight either but there are riders here who can climb better. Those include Neve Bradbury who surely will be getting the nod on Willunga Hill for the team. She was 3rd in last year’s race before having a strong turn at the UAE Tour and that is a similar path this season. She’s mentioned that she’s not fully in form yet but that shouldn’t stop her from finishing on the podium.
This time last year EF Education-Oatly were a sort of brand new team and they went in hard for the early season races to get results, which they duly delivered. They’re looking for WWT promotion this year and can get off to a fast start and security early on again. Kim Cadzow will be a decent GC favourite thanks to the climbing on Willunga Hill and can present a challenge to the likes of Bradbury and Fisher-Black. Noemi Rüegg will also be one to very much watch here as the parcours suits her perfectly, especially Stage 3. She could potentially win that stage in a reduced bunch and hang on over Willunga for her own top-10 GC finish as well.
I’m not fully convinced that the purer sprinters on Team Picnic PostNL – Silje Bader and Rachele Barbieri – will get a chance in this year’s race and will be looking ahead to the Schwalbe Classic next week. There’s maybe a chance on Stage 1 but it won’t be clear-cut if it’s raced hard. Instead, the likes of Josie Nelson and Eleonora Ciabocco feel like more confident shouts. Nelson is great on this sort of terrain and took many top-10s last year during tough races. It’s the same for Eleonora Ciabocco whose 7th at Brabantse Pijl is pretty handy for the final stage of this year’s race. She could be one of the riders who has early success this year. The team will also hope for a result from their new rider Mara Roldan. The Canadian is a good climber and is making the jump to the Women’s WorldTour this year from Cynisca Cycling.
Home team Liv AluLa Jayco will look towards Ruby Roseman-Gannon for a stage victory, especially with the parcours laid out how it is. The Aussie is tough to drop and then a fast finisher from a small group. GC hopes probably fall on Ella Wyllie and Silke Smulders. Wyllie was 7th here last year and the Kiwi should be in the top-10 GC contention once more. Smulders will be knocking on the door too after an impressive 2024 campaign, she will be somewhere between a GC charge and challenging for the honours on Stage 3. Amber Pate will also be an interesting watch after a strong nationals week. She won the Criterium by lapping the field, was 6th in the road race and also 2nd in the time trial.
Photo Credit: GettyWinner of the first stage of last year’s Women’s Tour Down Under, Ally Wollaston will have a chance to go back-to-back this year. She’s moved to FDJ-Suez for 2025 and will get plenty of support from the likes of fellow new signings Elise Chabbey and Eglantine Rayer. It’s the first time racing in Australia for Elise Chabbey but she seems ideally suited to going on the attack and putting the pressure on the peloton over such rolling terrain. The team’s GC hopes probably rely on Eglantine Rayer who joined from dsm-firmenich PostNL. Her win on the Tour de l’Avenir stage last year was a major confidence booster and she will want to be a threat when it comes to the Willunga Hill ascents.
UAE Team ADQ has plenty of all-around threats thanks to Karlijn Swinkels and Sofia Bertizzolo. All 3 of that trio can get results on rolling terrain sprints to the extent it’s hard to really know who’d be the fastest. We’ll see very quickly who has the early-season legs though. GC hopes should be with Dominika Wlodarczyk and Erica Magnaldi, the latter will want to reclaim her 2023 form after a not-quite-so-strong turn last season. Wlodarczyk will also be worth a watch after finishing 5th on Willunga Hill last season. She sprints well too and it’ll be interesting to see if she can repeat that result on a double ascent compared to a single climb.
Former winner Ruth Edwards will be a contender once more but the more climbing added the more it just starts to drift away from a race that she can win again. If she’s targeted this and has early-season form in her legs then she can maybe hang in there for a high top-10 but with the double ascent, she is likely to fall down the order a bit and might only make the top 15. Teammate Barbara Malcotti is a decent climber too but didn’t get that many chances last year to add big results to her palmares. A return to what she did in 2023 would put her in with a strong shout of doing well. The team will look for stage results too thanks to Kathrin Schweinberger and Silvia Zanardi. Both are able to climb well and sprint well which would put them on a strong footing in a reduced bunch finish.
Women’s Tour Down Under 2025 Outsiders
UAE Team ADQ’s Greta Marturano could be one of those riders who springs a surprise by having strong legs in this opening part of the season. She’s quietly been picking up results the last few years, with 11th at Fleche Wallonne last year and top-10s at the Tour of Scandinavia and Giro Donne in 2023 as well on tough stages. On a new team for 2025, she might be looking to impress straight away.
Sandra Alonso was once a sprinter but has moved from that to being an engine and one who can win breakaways. She did that 3 times last season, including a maiden WWT win at Guangxi, and if she has some early-season legs could put some serious pressure on rival teams to close the gap to the Spanish rider. New teammate Sara Fiorin should be there to cover for the sprints after joining Ceratizit-WNT from the UAE Team ADQ Development team. She picked up 2 wins and several top-10 results last season in fast finishes.
Team Coop-Repsol’s Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset has been right on the cusp of properly breaking out for a season or two now. She can do everything and could spring a WWT race win but is currently getting her best results just below that level. The right break and a bit of rolling terrain and she’ll be in with a shot. Teammate India Grangier will also be in the mix for any reduced bunches. The French rider has a quick turn of pace and finished just just outside of the top-20 in last year’s Women’s Tour Down Under. She can kick on from there.
Riding for the Australian National team, as her new Hess Cycling team isn’t here, is Maeve Plouffe. She sprinted well to 3rd place in the Australian national criterium race a week ago and was in the main group still on the punchy ride around Perth for the road race. She may get some luck on Stage 1 which is the most likely to be a bunch sprint finish.
St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93’s Australian signing Ella Simpson has got 2025 off to a good start with 2nd in the Australian national championships and 5th in the time trial too. She’s always been good against the clock but getting into the winning break in Perth was a sign that she can be a threat on the attack against WWT riders as well.
Top 3 Prediction
⦿ Niamh Fisher-Black
⦿ Neve Bradbury
⦿ Justine Ghekiere
