Liv AlUla Jayco Starts Santos Tour Down Under with Second-Place Finish

Georgia Baker kick-started the 2024 Santos Tour Down Under for Liv AlUla Jayco with a superb second-place finish on a blisteringly hot opening stage into Campbelltown.

The 93.9km rolling stage began with newly crowned Australian champion Ruby Roseman-Gannon winning the first intermediate sprint to grab valuable bonus seconds, before a four-rider breakaway formed.

The breakaway animated the day until it was reeled back in ahead of the much-anticipated bunch sprint. Liv AlUla Jayco lined up early to lead-out Baker, keeping the Commonwealth Games Champion up towards the front before she launched her sprint.

With a slight rise up to the line, Baker put her head down and powered on but the finish straight continued on, with one other rider able to pass her just ahead of the line to snatch the first stage victory.

Baker now heads into tomorrow’s stage two in second place on the general classification at two seconds, with teammate Roseman-Gannon in fourth, at seven seconds.

Georgia Baker – 2nd: “The plan was to be the first team into the corner with the one kilometre to go and we did that well. The wind was in different directions than we rehearsed, but we adjusted, and we knew that it was on the left side. Georgie (Howe) went for as long as she could and then Amber (Pate) followed through then Alex (Manly) and Ruby (Roseman-Gannon) and I just didn’t quite have the legs in the end. It’s quite a long sprint but the girls did really, really well and yeah, I wish I could pull it off with them but yes, I’m happy with second.”

Ruby Roseman-Gannon: “The girls did a really great lead-out and that was a great way to start the tour. After the break went, there was a bit of a lull, we had to keep the pace high a little bit because we didn’t want to spoil it. The course had a hard finish to nail because you don’t want to be too far back and into the final straight too early. We nearly nailed it but we probably just burned a little bit too early and couldn’t give Georgia the lead-out that she needed in that last little bit, but yeah, it was a great team ride and we’re pretty excited for the rest of the tour.”

2024 Santos Tour Down Under – stage 1 results:
Ally Woolaston 2:23:37
Georgia Baker ST
Sofia Bertizzolo ST