The young Italian speedster captures her second and the team’s third podium in four days.
After the completion of the Santos Tour Down Under, there is little doubt that Trek-Segafredo has arrived with force. Trek-Segafredo took control in the final laps of the stage four criterium, and Letizia Paternoster nearly capped off the cohesive teamwork with her second win, sprinting to a close second behind Chloe Hosking (Ale Cipollini). It was the team’s third podium in four stages.
“It has been a great start. I think that since it’s the first time that they are together, it has been amazing how they have raced. The first day a victory and even the third day was perfect with the second place of Ruth (Winder), and today also was amazing to see the team leading the last five kilometers – they showed a lot of power,” said Trek-Segafredo’s General Manager Luca Guercilena.
“The second stage was also quite good for us considering we don’t have the condition of the Aussie women. So overall, we have been very successful in the first race of the year. Clearly, this is just the starting point. We can be happy what we have done this week, but now we need to stay focused for the next races in Australia, and then when we go back to Europe to focus very well on the Classics as they are a big goal of the season.”
While the general classification was always an unknown for the team, most who arrived in Australia from winter environments, Ruth Winder did sneak in a respectable 10th place overall and sprinted to second place on the third stage.
Director Ina Teutenberg, in her first race at the helm of the new team, was pleased to see everyone come together so intuitively and fluidly, pointing out that this bodes well for the rest of the year.
We had a really amazing week. Of course, we won the first stage, so that was the highlight but looking at the whole week the girls raced so well together. We got another two podium finishes, and yeah, we would have loved to win today instead of being beaten by that little, but everyone did a great job and really looked after Letizia at the end. They rode as a team, and they rode as a team all week. I think us being a new team and having found each other that well already in the first week, that makes me super happy and I think that is a really good sign for the season.
The team takes a well-earned rest ahead of the next race, the Towards Zero Race Melbourne, where they will be joined by Abi Van Twisk as Paternoster heads back to race the final UCI Track World Cups. Lotta Lepistö, sidelined by a virus that kept her out of the Tour Down Under, will also be back and raring to go.
