Just over two weeks ago, Noemi Rüegg was at home in Switzerland riding indoors on a turbo, wearing layers of rain jackets to try and somewhat replicate training on a hot summer’s day. Outside of her window, the Swiss roads were snowy and temperatures were close to freezing. The EF Education-Oatly rider was doing her best to get a taste of what the conditions were going to be like at the Tour Down Under – a race which is known to suit those who have spent their off-seasons in the Southern Hemisphere, not riders who have been pedalling on Zwift in uncomfortable layers of clothing.
Fast forward to January 18, and Rüegg is leading on the final ascent of Willunga Hill, riding away from pre-race favourites like Niamh Fisher-Black of Lidl-Trek and Neve Bradbury of Canyon//SRAM in 30 degree heat. The Swiss national champion and her teammates have executed an almost perfect race to this point: Kim Cadzow has been covering all the early breaks, while Rüegg has sat patiently behind, measuring her effort on the climb and waiting for her moment to go. It was with one kilometre of the stage remaining that moment came. The training rides in the snow, the heat training indoors; somehow, it all worked.
“Our idea was that Noemi should wait for a sprint with three or four riders, it was not the plan she was able to go alone on the climb but she felt like she could do it in the end and gain as many seconds as possible. It was one of those days where you have a plan and everything goes as you hope,” EF Education-Oatly sports director Daniel Holm Foder grinned after the stage. “We tried to motivate her because in the first half of the climb she was in that survival mode and needed to control her effort in order to not overdo it or explode. Her attack in the end was pure instinct.”
While Rüegg’s eventual winning move can be put down to her own tactical prowess, EF Education-Oatly were clearly a team with a plan for success on stage two of the Tour Down Under. Cadzow was crucial to Rüegg’s performance, playing the perfect teammate role from the very start of the stage. While it may have been a surprise to some that Rüegg won on Willunga Hill, her team had unwavering faith in her ability right from the flag drop.
“It played out exactly like I dreamed of last night. Noemi just finished it off in the end,” Cadzow gushed after the stage. “I knew she was this good. When I have to train with her and she’s doing Vo2 max or 40/20 efforts, I’m dead by the end of the day. There’s no way I can keep up with her. She’s an absolute rocket. She lacks a little bit of confidence in herself but we all really believe in her. She’s such a kind spirit and I think she has a really long way to go in cycling, this is just the start for a lot of WorldTour wins for her.”
It’s true that Rüegg has been knocking on the door of a big result like this for some time; the 23-year-old finished an impressive seventh place at the Olympic road race last season and became Swiss national champion, as well as taking a win in Spain early in the year. If Cadzow believes that her teammate lacks confidence, her performance on Willunga Hill will go a long way to affirming that Rüegg belongs among the best riders in the women’s peloton this season.
“I surprised myself today, I'm super happy and can’t really believe what happened. We went into the race with this goal of winning the stage with Kim or me. To finish it off is crazy, it feels really good. We are proving that we are a really strong team and if we stick together we can do great things,” Rüegg grinned in her post-race press conference.
Cadzow echoed her teammate’s sentiment: “It gives us so much confidence, I really believe in EF Education. We come here with a lot of new riders, we haven’t ridden together a lot but the way the team is and the spirit that we have, the team just fully believes in each other, commits to each other and to win means so much to us.”
The special thing about the Tour Down Under is that it’s the race which gives the first indication of which riders will be ones to watch for the remainder of the season. If someone manages to work hard all winter, be that through long miles in the sun or – in Rüegg’s case – hours on an indoor trainer in a rain jacket, Down Under is the test of whether it has all paid off. If confidence was lacking before, a good performance in Australia can be transformative to the rest of the year – something that is especially applicable to Rüegg. As those around her are keen to stress, the Swiss woman's win on Willunga Hill is just the beginning for EF Education-Oatly. They couldn’t have hoped for a better way to kick off the year, and forward movement is expected to continue.
“We were pretty sure if she came here in the form she did, she would be able to make a top result,” Foder stated with a smile. “It gives everybody confidence and belief, it's always nice to start the season like this. We also have a team in Mallorca at the moment who are watching and seeing we can win. It gives that momentum which we can use in the coming races.”
