Sydney Uni Staminade have again been invited to compete in the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under, in January. Racing will take place from 10 to 14 January in Adelaide, against professional teams from Europe and the USA.
This is a real fillip for the riders, and an endorsement of the strategy that we have had since assuming full management of the team 12 months ago. Put simply, the Tour Down Under is the biggest cycling race in Australia. For more information, please see http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/about
Racing continues for Sydney Uni Staminade in the meantime. This weekend sees the team competing in the Tour of Tasmania. Team members Georgia Whitehouse, Emily Watts, Anna Booth, Jade Colligan and Megan Scott will represent the team racing on the north coast and hinterland of Tasmania. The team is all set, with a very full van and 2 of the riders making the from Sydney to Devonport by road and sea. They will be joined by the rest of the team today. A new signing to the team for 2019, Jennifer Darmody, will be riding in the Tour as an individual entry. Jen will be competing in her Sydney Uni Velo Club kit prior to receiving her new team kit in the New Year.
To follow the event on the weekend, tune into www.facebook.com/NationalRoadSeries for a mixture of live and as-live streams, plus highlights packages of the Tour. Results can also be found at Liveresults.nrs.cycling.org.au.
Elsewhere, in Sydney team members will be competing in the national Shimano Sprint series. While the Wollongong crit scheduled for Sunday was a late scratching, the Criterium White Bay will be proceeding on 16-17 November, under lights just down the road from the University.
Next weekend, the scheduled Giro Della Donna has also been cancelled for NRS teams. This means that this weekend’s Tour of Tasmania is the final race in the National Road Series. Not to be caught out having a weekend off the bike, team members will be travelling to the Sunshine Coast instead, to participate in Cycle Sunshine Gran Fondo, which is sponsored by our good friends at Staminade. Riding with the team will be a new signing for 2019, Jessicsa Pratt. Jess is a nursing student from Queensland, whose palmares (cycling CV) includes 2nd in the Oceania junior Championships Road Race in 2014, Australian women’s junior road race champion in 2015, and winner of Stage 5 of the Tour Cycliste Feminin International de l’Ardeche in 2017.
In December, most team members will take a well-deserved break although some will compete in the St Kilda Super Crit in the middle of the month. Just prior to the TDU in January there are the National Championships in Ballarat, where team members will be competing for national glory against professional riders who have returned to Australia for our summer, including former EAP scholarship holders Sarah Roy (Mitchelton – Scott), and Rachel Neylan (Movistar).