ARA Skip Capital Cycling Team rider, Alisha Wells gets a moment to recap the team's busy start to the year! 

The Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) brings UCI WorldTour professional cycling teams, both men and women, to race in and around beautiful South Australia every January. The women’s race debuted this year as the first UCI Women’s WorldTour stage race in the southern hemisphere, taking the riders on picturesque coastlines, rough country roads, and challenging climbs throughout the four days.

Alisha said ‘We didn’t have many expectations coming into these world tour races apart from trying to get our names out there’.

‘We exceeded these expectations with Issy Carnes getting the most aggressive rider on day one of TDU’, she said.

The youngest rider of the ARA Skip Capital team Lucie Stewert had a fantastic couple days, gaining her first top ten finish on the world stage.

Onto the Cadel Road Race, where the UCI Women’s WorldTour certified course takes the riders from Geelong to Torquay, 143km of scenic roads, rolling hills, technical corners and pinchy climbs for the one-day classic.

On the day crosswinds, as predicted, surfaced and, the steep climbs towards the end would favour the climbers that manage to stay connected to the front group.

‘We had Sophie Edwards in the break of the day collecting some sprint points for the team’, Alisha said.

Alisha had a great ride and managed to stay in touch with the front group towards the end of the race.

‘I figured if I could try to get a head start on the climbs just maybe I’ll be able to help out team climber Racheal Wales on the final climb’ 

‘I had a go at getting away and managed to get away solo!’ 

Unfortunately, Alisha got caught just before the climbs started.

‘Overall, we had very successful races over the month’ 

A fantastic effort by UniSC Partnering team ARA Skip Capital Cycling, congratulations to the riders and the team involved.

Since our chat with Alisha, the team had an outstanding win at the Women’s Warrnambool Cycling Classic, with Sophie Edwards sprinting to victory.

We look forward to catching up with Sophie and the team when they arrive back at UniSC.

Image: Alex Polizzi