Wiggle Down Under’s Nettie Edmondson took third place in the bunch sprint of the second stage of the Santos Women’s Tour, the Jarvis Subaru Criterium, on East End, Adelaide, to take her first ever podium in the black and orange jersey in only her second race. The 23-year-old Adelaide local crossed the line in a close photo finish with winner Melissa Hoskins (Orica-AIS) and Australian criterium champion Kimberley Wells (High5 Dream Team) in second.
“It was a little bit of a mess at the end there, but we managed to do okay to get up on the podium, but obviously the goal is to win,” Edmondson said.
With the race taking place shortly before the men’s People’s Choice Classic – the traditional precursor to the Santos Tour Down Under – Edmondson made a second trip to the podium to collect the green Sprints Jersey.
Five points for victory in the race’s one intermediate sprint, along with two for the stage finish, gave the South Australian a total of 12 points and the lead in the classification.
“The plan had been for Chloe [Hosking] to go for the jersey yesterday, but then she wasn’t feeling so flash and she asked me to do the sprint,” Edmondson explained. “We knew that we were in second place today, so I just had to follow Lauren Kitchen [Roxsolt] who was in the lead, and I managed to win the win the intermediate thanks to some help from the girls.”
Wiggle Down Under’s former two-time Road World Champion Giorgia Bronzini finished in fifth place, just behind Edmondson, as the Adelaide rider admitted thing’s didn’t go quite to plan for the fast-finishing duo.
“In the final we were meant to organise a lead out train, but the riders got a bit mixed up together in the peloton and we were a bit spread out,” she explained. “I had Giorgia on my wheel, and we were moving up on the last half lap; the plan was that we were sprinting for Giorgia instead of me, but by the time we made the switch I led out too late for Giorgia, but sprinted too early for me!
“It was nice to get Wiggle Down Under on the podium, especially at the People’s Choice Classic, because there’s a lot of people out there – a lot of support – and to be able to represent on the podium in front of everyone just before the men’s presentation was pretty special.”
With two more stages to go in the Santos Women’s Tour, Edmondson is confident that Wiggle Down Under can take more results in the coming days, with Bronzini and Hosking carrying their good form over from the Mitchelton Bay Crits, and Hosking herself lurking just six seconds down in the general classification.
“I think we executed a lot of things really well during the race, but there are three girls in the team that are pretty new to Wiggle Honda and so it’s going to take a little bit of getting used to the way we ride together,” Edmondson admitted. “It’s exciting though, we’ve got another crit in a couple of days… We could maybe have done that a bit better, but we’ve got such a strong team that we want to capitalise on these races.”
Result
1. Melissa Hoskins (Orica-AIS)
2. Kimberley Wells (High5 Dream Team)
3. Annette Edmondson (Wiggle Down Under)
