Tour Down Under: First top ten of the season for AG Insurance - Soudal

Tour Down Under: First top ten of the season for AG Insurance - Soudal

Alexandra Manly took a solid seventh on the uphill finish in Paracombe.

A hot day, with almost 2000 vertical meters and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, awaited the Tour Down Under peloton as they rolled out from Magill. The second stage of the Tour Down Under had little flat terrain, which made for an action-packed opening hour; a flurry of attacks split the bunch before a breakaway finally formed, putting more than a minute into the chasers after 50 kilometers.

The peloton was back as one only on the last classified climb of the day, but not for long, as more attacks came, this time inside the closing 25 kilometers of the stage. The up-and-down roads helped a five-rider group go clear, among those to book a place there being also AG Insurance - Soudal’s Mireia Benito. The leaders carried a 17-second gap in the final five kilometers, but they were caught before the flamme rouge, and the win went again to Ally Wollaston.

Alexandra Manly was there for the team, sprinting on the uphill drag to the line to seventh place from a reduced bunch that included also Mireia, who is now our best placed rider on the general classification ahead of the last stage.