Tour Down Under 2024

Three-day stage race is the first event of the Women's WorldTour season, with eight WorldTeams competing in South Australia

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Updated: January 23, 2024

Women's Santos Tour Down Under Stage 3

AG Insurance-Soudal's Sarah Gigante made a triumphant return to Willunga Hill, as the QoM holder sailed to victory alone on stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under. The Australian had dropped the race leader Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) with over half of the climb left to conquer.

From there to the finish, it was a show of force from the 23-year-old, who would win not only the stage, but also the overall title. Behind Gigante, Nienke Vinke (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM) finished second and third on both the stage and GC, respectively.

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Women's Santos Tour Down Under Stage 2

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) took stage 2 of the Tour Down Under in a stinging uphill sprint ahead of Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) and Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ).

The Danish all-rounder took a superb sprint victory on the uphill sprint into Stirling, building on her credentials as one of the most formidable finishers in the women's peloton. While the day as a whole was largely uneventful, the sprint from Uttrup Ludwig was enough to upend the GC and put her in the driver's seat for the overall victory before the final stage.

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Women's Santos Tour Down Under Stage 1

Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) took her first WorldTour win of her career, taking the sprint ahead of Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ).

The stage, a rolling 93km affair finishing in Campbelltown, was animated by a breakaway of four riders, Matilda Raynolds (Team Bridgelane), Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health), India Grangier (Team Coop-Repsol) and Kate Richardson (Lifeplus Wahoo), but was always likely to be a sprint finish.

Once the escapees were reeled in, Liv Alula Jayco looked to be in control until 150 metres to go when Wollaston exploded through the middle and took a win with a full bike length to spare.

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Women's Santos Tour Down Under 2024 overview

First raced in 2016, the women’s Santos Tour Down Under welcomes in the 2024 Women’s WorldTour season in January and will greet some of the world’s best riders to Australia. Raced over three stages, the Santos Tour Down Under is a day shorter than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since returned as a WorldTour event and will carry that status for a second time next year.

The Santos Tour Down Under may be the first race on the Women’s WorldTour calendar for 2024, but is shortly followed by the women’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, which will entice the riders to stick around for a couple of weeks of training in the southern hemisphere.

Taking to the start of the women’s Santos Tour Down Under will be a handful of Women’s WorldTour teams, alongside an Australian national side, with Liv AlUla Jayco the headline act as Australia’s only WorldTeam. Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) will renew their rivalry for the overall title, but will not have things their own way, with Human Powered Health, Canyon-SRAM, UAE Team ADQ and Jumbo-Visma also bringing their own strong squads.

Race director Stuart O’Grady has confirmed that eight Women’s WorldTour teams will be in attendance in 2024, but only seven have yet been named.

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This year’s edition will span three days between January 12 and 14, just before the men's race, and feature Willunga Hill for the first time in the race's history. The women’s peloton may have tackled this icon in 2021 as part of the Santos Festival of Cycling, but this will bring an entirely new level of attention. Further, the riders will tackle the longest stage in Santos Tour Down Under history on day two, traversing over 100km and 2,000m of climbing between Glenelg and Stirling in Southern Australia.

Women's Santos Tour Down Under 2024 key information

When is the women's Santos Tour Down Under? The 2024 edition of the race will take place between January 12-14.

Where does the women's Santos Tour Down Under take place? The race takes place in Australia and has done so every year since 2016, with the 2024 edition raced in Southern Australia and around Adelaide.

What UCI category is the women's Santos Tour Down Under? The race was moved up to Women's WorldTour status in 2023 and will continue to be raced as a 2.WWT event this year.

When did the women's Santos Tour Down Under begin and how many editions have there been? The women's Santos Tour Down Under was added to the calendar of events in Australia in 2016 and there have been seven editions so far, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing its cancellation between 2021 and 2023.

Who won the first women's Santos Tour Down Under? The first edition of the race was won by Katrin Garfoot in 2016.

Who was the most recent winner of the Santos Tour Down Under? FDJ-SUEZ's Grace Brown won the race in 2023, pipping Lidl-Trek's Amanda Spratt to the title. It is Spratt who holds the record for most wins at the race, however, with three titles to her name.

Women's Santos Tour Down Under 2024 route

Stage 1: Hahndorf → Campbelltown (93km)

Stage 2: Glenelg → Stirling (104.2km)

Stage 3: Adelaide → Willunga (93km)

Women's Santos Tour Down Under 2024 contenders

Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) will renew hostilities in 2024 after their two-up battle came to a thrilling sprint finale on Corkscrew Road in 2023. Brown will be looking to retain her crown, whilst three-time winner Spratt will be looking to come out on top for the first time in six years.

Who will win the 2024 Santos Tour Down Under?

Only a handful of other riders have yet been named on the startlist, but amongst them, Audrey Cordon-Ragot and former winner Ruth Edwards (both Human Powered Health) will both be names to watch out for. For a comprehensive look at the race contenders, keep an eye out for our race preview nearer to the time.

Which teams are racing the women's Santos Tour Down Under 2024?

The full list of teams heading to the women's Santos Tour Down Under is yet to be confirmed, but the event is expected to attract a number of Women’s WorldTour teams, European Continental teams and some local Australian teams.

The following teams have been confirmed on the start list for the Tour Down Under.

Canyon-SRAM (WWT)
FDJ-SUEZ
Human Powered Health
Jayco AlUla
Jumbo-Visma
Lidl-Trek
UAE Team ADQ

Full start list yet to be announced.

Women's Santos Tour Down Under race history

The Santos Tour Down Under is Australia’s flagship stage race and has been ever since it held its first edition back in 1999. For its first 12 years, the race was only open to men but in 2011 a series of women’s criteriums were added in conjunction. In 2016 an official Women’s Santos Tour Down Under was finally launched.

Taking place in early January, the multi-day stage race serves as a fantastic opportunity for riders to kickstart their seasons in sunny Australia, rather than cold and damp Europe. In recent years many of the peloton’s top teams have headed down under to take part, including home favourites Jayco AlUla, formerly Team BikeExchange, and other WorldTour teams like Lild-Trek, Canyon-SRAM and dsm-firmenich.

The race’s first edition in 2016 was held over four stages across the Adelaide Hills and saw Orica-AIS’ Katrin Garfoot emerge as the overall victor. Her teammate Amanda Spratt went on to win the next three editions in a row as the race grew in stature. It remained a four-day stage race, however, despite the men’s equivalent continually featuring six stages year after year.

In 2020, the last edition before the race undertook a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, US all-rounder Ruth Winder won by five seconds ahead of Germany’s Liane Lippert and became the first non-Australian winner in the history of the race. The race made a return in 2023 and, for the first time ever, formed part of the Women’s WorldTour.

However, many Women’s WorldTour teams shied away from the race and the field was very much Aussie-dominated. Spratt could not produce a fourth winning ride, but instead finished second behind first-time winner Grace Brown of FDJ-SUEZ. Both women will be back at the race in 2024, which should feature a much stronger international lineup.