Pro Log: Noemi Rüegg wins women’s Tour Down Under; Suspended rider joins Movistar; Change coming for the Tour de France final stage?

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Pro Log: Noemi Rüegg wins women’s Tour Down Under; Suspended rider joins Movistar; Change coming for the Tour de France final stage?

Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. Here’s a rundown of the latest results before we get started:

• Benidorm, Men’s Cyclocross World Cup, Sat 18th Jan: 1st Thibau Nys, Baloise Glowi Lions, 56min 31sec; 2nd Eli Iserbyt, Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines, +03sec; 3rd Lars van der Haar, Baloise Glowi Lions, +04sec. 
• Benidorm, Women’s Cyclocross World Cup, Sat 18th Jan: 1st Fem van Empel, Visma-Lease a Bike, 47min 54sec; 2nd Lucinda Brand, Baloise Glowi Lions, +00sec; 3rd Marie Schreiber, SD Worx-Protime, +02sec. 
• Women’s Tour Down Under, Stage 3, Sun 19th Dec: 1st ChloéDygert, Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto, 2h 53min 29sec; 2nd Eilke Smulders, Liv AlUla Jayco, +01sec; 3rd Noemi Rüegg, EF Education-Oatly, +01sec. 
• Women’s Tour Down Under, Final GC, Sun 19th Dec: 1st Noemi Rüegg, EF Education-Oatly, 8h 49min 00sec; 2nd Eilke Smulders, Liv AlUla Jayco, +13sec; 3rd Mie Bjørndal Ottestad, Uno-X Mobility, +37sec. 

Noemi Rüegg wins on Willunga Hill to take Tour Down Under

EF’s Swiss road race champion Noemi Rüegg won the women’s Tour Down Under by 13 seconds ahead of Liv-AlUla-Jayco rider Eilke Smulders thanks to an impressive surge to victory in the final kilometre on Willunga Hill.

The three days produced three different winners: Daniek Hengeveld of Ceratizit kicked off proceedings with a 50km solo breakaway for opening day and leader’s jersey honours; Rüegg won on Stage 2 to move into the overall lead; and Chloé Dygert finished off a flurry of Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto attacks by winning the reduced bunch sprint on Stage 3.

It was a first overall stage race victory for the 23-year-old Rüegg.

Final stage format change for the Tour de France?

Fifty years since the inaugural use of the Champs-Élysées as a finishing point for the last stage of the Tour de France, organisers could be trying to spice up proceedings thanks to the success of the Olympic Games road races.

Le Parisien reported last week that Tour organiser ASO had submitted a request for the race to head up Montmartre hill three times. This is where Mathieu van der Poel ignited a fire in the men’s Olympic road race and its inclusion in the Tour’s final day route could change things slightly from the usual processional multi-lap race around Paris.

The stage would still finish on the Champs-Élysées, so it could still come down to a sprint.

Michel Hessmann to join Movistar

23-year-old Michel Hessmann will join Movistar this season. The German rider tested positive for the diuretic chlorthalidone in June 2023 and was suspended by Visma-Lease a Bike.

WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency), NADA (the National Anti-Doping Agency of Germany) and Hessman settled on a Case Resolution Agreement, and he was ‘sanctioned for an unintentional anti-doping rule violation’, leading to a 21-month suspension.

He is eligible to compete for Movistar from 14th March 2025.

See you next week.

The post Pro Log: Noemi Rüegg wins women’s Tour Down Under; Suspended rider joins Movistar; Change coming for the Tour de France final stage? appeared first on Cyclist.