Wollaston wins second Tour stage, keeps lead Down Under

Roger Vaughan | January 18, 2026

New Zealand Ally Wollaston has unleashed a storming finish to win stage two of the Tour Down Under and keep the race lead.

The FDJ United-Suez rider outsprinted defending Santos Tour champion Noemi Ruegg (EF Education Oatly) to claim the 130.7km stage at Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills.

Wollaston also won stage one, but unlike Saturday at Willunga, the hilly course on Sunday was not her favourite terrain.

With 13km left, just before the start of the last of three finishing laps, Canada’s world road champion and Ruegg’s teammate Magdaleine Vallieres lit up the stage with an attack.

Vallieres is the first reigning women’s world road champion to race at the Tour.

Fellow race drawcard, American Chloe Dygert (Canyon Sram), soon was at the front of a group of five that went clear inside the last 10km.

Dygert’s most recent win was the final stage of last year’s Tour Down Under.

She said in the pre-race media conference on Friday that she was “sick of losing”, and Olympic champion Grace Brown said in the TV commentary that Dygert had “finish-line fever”.

They were caught inside the last kilometre, setting up the bunch finish.

Wollaston said after her stage win on Saturday that she would do the leader’s jersey justice, and the New Zealander was good for her word.

The Australian team Liv AlUla Jayco suffered another blow when Georgia Baker was ruled out before the start.

She suffered a bloodied knee in the crash that ruined their stage win chances on Saturday. The team started the Tour one rider down after Amber Pate crashed in training.

Sunday’s stage started at suburban Magill and within the first 10km went up Norton Summit Rd, one of Adelaide’s most popular cycling spots.

The climb and the 30C-plus conditions quickly exposed any riders in the peloton who were struggling.

While the hard start did not detonate the front of the race, it had several riders out the back.

Australian star Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ) and three compatriots on the ARA National Team – Amelie Sanders, Hannah Gianatti and Anna Dubiar – were among those who abandoned.

Italian Soraya Paladin, another rider who crashed on Saturday, also pulled out as the race reached three laps of the 12.3km Paracombe finishing circuit – another Adelaide Hills cycling landmark.

With a rider up the road, Wollaston won the bunch sprint at the two intermediate sprints, boosting her overall lead on the road from four seconds to eight.

Finland’s Wilma Aintila (Canyon Sram) went clear by herself inside the last 100km, but she was caught after the second sprint with about 51km left.

There were repeated attacks from the peloton as riders tried to spark the crucial move that would snare the stage win and potentially the overall lead.