Only half a team but a whole lot of hope as Nina Buijsman pushes Human Powered Health up the ranks at the Women’s Tour Down Under

Walking around the edge of the oval in Campbelltown where teams were set up with their vans and shade marquees as riders after the final stage of the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under presented a roller coaster of moods.

EF Education-Oatly not surprisingly joyously rushed to congratulate race winner Noemi Rüegg, UAE Team ADQ were a the picture of disappointment after taking three of the top four spots but missing out on the one they really wanted, and then there was Human Powered Health.

It was a team that has been through the ringer this tour, losing half the squad through injury and illness, therefore fronting up to the final stage with just three riders Marit Raaijmakers, Carlotta Cipressi and Nina Buijsman. Still Buijsman had given them plenty of reason to fight on, after finishing a gruelling, hot stage 2 in eighth place and as a result moving up to tenth overall.

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“Yesterday seeing the riders come in, they were pretty spent and exhausted but Nina still had life in her … so really who knows what the race in the future holds, but I feel pretty optimistic,” Human Powered Health sports director Clark Sheehan told Cyclingnews before the start of stage 3.

“We’re hoping for a lot, but to get a top 10 in a World Tour race for us … it’s a real victory at this point.”

But they got even more, with Buijsman ramping it up again on Monday to take sixth on the stage, which also shifted her up to sixth overall. Even with a heavily depleted line-up the team who last year finished 13th on the world rankings had just managed to walk away from the Australia season starter ahead of most of the top squads on the UCl rankings, from FDJ United-Suez to Lidl-Trek and SD Worx-Protime. The broad grins on display and excited chattering made clear just how much it meant to start the season this way.

Even before the final stage had unfolded, Sheehan was clearly delighted at what Buijsman was bringing to the squad as she returned after a two-year stint with FDJ United-Suez.

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“It speaks volumes on Nina to be able to be riding so well with only two supports so we’re looking at it in the positive sense of, for the rest of the season, being in a really strong position.”

The real test, though was yet to come as while stage 1 and 2 weren’t without their challenges, stage 3 with its double ascent of the Corkscrew Road climb in the final 30km of racing was another matter altogether.

“This stage was the first real hill so I was a bit nervous to see where I was,” Buijsman told Cyclingnews. “It was good to see that I am quite there, I’m not totally there, but that I could be quite there, and I am happy with the shape, with what it was today.”

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The Dutch rider had a good idea of what she was in for with the climb of the Corkscrew, having taken on a single ascent when she came out to the race in 2023 – finishing 13th overall.

“It’s also the first year coming back to this team and I was a leader here so you feel a bit of pressure, but in a good way, some extra motivation,” said Buijsman. “So I went to a hilly part of the Netherlands, because I live at the flat. I also did heat training.”

That paid off when the hard-fought finale played out in temperatures nearing 30 degrees celsius on Monday, with Buijsman claiming sixth as part of the first chase group.

“It’s really good for my confidence, first year with a new team you always want to show yourself and want to make extra steps so it was really good for my confidence, said Buijsman. “Last year, I didn’t have the best year so I want to be back again and this is a great start for it.”

Though there could well be more to come, with the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race around the corner on January 31. The last time Buijsman took that event on with the Human Powered Health squad, in 2023, she came third.