{"id":359630,"date":"2024-01-13T09:05:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T10:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359630"},"modified":"2024-01-13T12:01:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T12:01:56","slug":"star-victorious-as-aussie-struggles-on-hilly-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359630","title":{"rendered":"Star victorious as Aussie struggles on hilly course"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tom McCracken\ufeff<\/em><\/p>\n

It was meant to be for Danish Olympian Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) as she stormed across the finish line to win the second stage of the Tour Down Unde<\/a>r, showing a clean set of heels to a chasing peloton and grabbing the leader's ochre jersey.<\/p>\n

Ludwig was a class above in Adelaide on Saturday, perfectly navigating the uphill drag into Stirling despite her team changing its plans mid-race as defending champion and teammate Grace Brown was running out of legs with still a lap to go.<\/p>\n

"Plan A was to sprint with Grace and we had that all figured out, but then Grace didn't feel so good so we had to change the plan and I was just happy I could execute," Ludwig said.<\/p>\n

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"It just feels so good at the first race of the season and coming here as the defending champion and we had a lot to prove and we're coming here with a strong squad."<\/p>\n

After claiming her first win on Australian soil, Ludwig said\ufeff Australia was becoming more than just training roads and hot weather.<\/p>\n

\"Cecilie<\/p>\n

"I mean Australia's my second home; that's where my boyfriend is from, and it just feels good," Ludwig said.<\/p>\n

A final stage to go but with a slim lead, FDJ-SUEZ's plan B will need to step up again, as in-form Australian Olympian Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) and three-time Olympian Amanda Spratt (Lidl-TREK) will look to leverage the steep slopes of Willunga Hill to their favour.<\/p>\n

"As soon as I realised that I might have the chance to race the Tour Down Under, after all, then I looked at the race route and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, Willunga, I only have good memories from Willunga," Gigante said.<\/p>\n

"I love that climb."<\/p>\n

It's been a successful tour so far for Gigantes' new team AG Insurance-Soudal, after Wollaston kicked off its season by winning the opening stage, but the Kiwi national road champion says it's time to return the favour by helping Gigante tackle Willunga before embarking on a season that focuses on the track at the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n

"I lost a little bit of time today, so full domestique roll tomorrow and we just go all in for Sarah," Wollaston said.<\/p>\n

"The Olympics are a massive goal for me this year and, despite any success on the road, it'll still remain a big priority for me this year."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tom McCracken\ufeff It was meant to be for Danish Olympian Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) as she stormed across the finish line to win the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359633,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359630\/revisions\/359633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/359632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}