ADELAIDE - Dutch rider Daniek Hengeveld (Ceratizit-WNT) stole the opening stage of the women's Tour Down Under with a daring breakaway to win her first UCI World Tour stage near Adelaide on Friday.
Hengeveld, in her first year with the German-based team, caught the peloton on the hop, surging to the front with 50km left in the 101.9km Brighton to Snapper Point first stage to win by 36 seconds.
New Zealand's Olympic silver medallist Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) was second ahead of Austria's Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) in third place.
With the time bonus, Hengeveld holds a 43-second lead on Wollaston and 45 seconds on Schweinberger heading into Saturday's second stage over 115km from Unley finishing up the Willunga Hill.
"It was super unexpected. I really didn't expect that after quite a hard year last year with a really big crash in the Tour of Britain and not racing for seven months," sprinter Hengeveld said.
"It's a good start for a small team like ours, maybe it was a little bit of luck but we start on the right note."
In hot weather, Hengeveld's bold solo attack built a lead of more than three minutes at one stage and turned the expected bunch sprint finish into a solo celebration, also taking the overall lead.
Hengeveld's only other pro win was the prologue time trial in the 2021 Belgrade GP Tour.
"I was racing like I was 19 again," she said.