It was the perfect bunch sprint for Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) as she charged along the oceanside straight and toward the Snapper Point finish line on stage 1 of the Women’s Tour Down Under. Perfect except one thing – the win had already been swept up by long-range solo attacker Daniek Hengeveld (Ceratizit-WNT).
That meant that even though the lead out was dialled, the sprint ideally timed and pace just what it needed to be, instead of celebrating an opening victory on the very first WorldTour race of the season for a second year running, the rider from New Zealand was second as she stepped out with her new squad for the first time.
The teams of the sprinters had let what was probably their best chance for victory of the race slip away.
