PP ACADEMY | Sophie Edwards #TeamUniSA Tour Down Under blog

The right pathway: Rising star Sophie Edwards has a lot to smile about.

For each Summer of Cycling, Cycling Australia prepares endurance development racing teams for the Santos Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (CEGORR) including Race Torquay, and the Herald Sun Tour.  

The development opportunity for athletes within Australia's High Performance Network and National Road Series teams to contest UCI events within Australia.

One of the youngest to line up at the 2020 Santos Tour Down Under was Adelaide teenager Sophie Edwards who switched the green and gold of the Australian Cycling Team’s Podium Potential Academy^ to take her place on the Team UniSA-Australia outfit.

A Junior Track World Championship medallist in 2018, Edwards joined the Academy in the same year, with a blend of track and road in 2019 resulting in two elite World Cup appearances in Hong Kong and Glasgow, while also taking part in a winter road racing program in Belgium. 
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Sophie penned her thoughts on her week at the Santos Tour Down Under for us below.

On the road: Edwards powers during a stage of the 2020 Santos Tour Down Under

Last week I was grateful to be given the opportunity to swap out the track bike and take part in the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under. It has been a dream of mine to race the TDU, as I’ve not only watched it eagerly every year as a child in my hometown, but I also rode the family ride when I was seven, assisted at presentations and cleaned bikes in a valet service. 

The Santos Women’s Tour consisted of three hilly stages, all well over 100km with upwards of 1500m climbing. These challenging stages were followed by a technical street-circuit criterium in the heart of Adelaide, which preceded the men’s Schwalbe Classic. ​

It all started in Hahndorf, a 115km stage with close to 1500m of climbing. The streets were decorated and there was a much larger crowd than I expected! It was a tough race, with the strong World Tour teams setting the tempo high up the climbs. 

It was awesome to see a daring attack by Australian Brodie Chapman almost pay off before she was caught in a super technical finishing circuit with the sprint won by another Australian, Chloe Hosking. It was a massive learning experience for me as I couldn’t just try and finish, I had to constantly be aware of where my team was and assist our GC rider as much as I could. 

On the track: Edwards Sophie on the front of the team pursuit quartet at the Glasgow UCI Track World Cup in 2019.

Stage 2 and 3 passed through many of the bushfire affected towns, in particular, Woodside and Charleston. I could see the emotion it provoked in all of the riders, however despite the hardship, many locals lined the roads and cheered. 

My highlight of the tour was the finish of stage 3 in Stirling. It was tough going up the long Aldgate Valley road climb three times, but as we went up the final steep pinch into Stirling we were greeted by crowds, similar in size to what the men will have on Wednesday. Thank you to all of my family and friends who came to cheer me on, I heard all of you! 

Thank you to the organisers for the WTDU who designed such opportunistic, exciting courses and ran the event so smoothly. Also, a massive thanks to all of the sponsors of the women’s race, which stepped it up another level and allowed all of the stages to be live-streamed for the first time! 

Lastly, I am incredibly grateful to the team at Cycling Australia and the University of SA who have generously supported the ‘up and coming’ Australian national women’s team for the last three editions of the race. 

Watch out – we’ll be back for Cadel’s Great Ocean Road Race! 

Photos by Hikari Media / University of South Australia / Guy Swarbrick

^ About the Podium Potential Academy - Launched in November 2018 with an inaugural class of thirteen athletes across both endurance and sprint disciplines, the PPA programme, which is supported and partly funded by Commonwealth Games Australia, focuses on the long term development of athletes orientated around success at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and through to the 2024 Olympic Games and beyond