Josie Nelson sprints to 2nd in opening race of the year Down Under

The 2026 cycling season got underway on Saturday at the Women’s Tour Down Under with a rolling stage, starting and finishing in the town of Willunga, where the riders would be faced with an uphill kick to the line come the end of the day. Team Picnic PostNL looked resplendent, taking their 2026 jersey into action for the first time, with some good team riding throughout the day.

It was a cagey affair initially before a lone break rider managed to escape up the road, while the team remained nestled in the peloton, biding their time. Coming into the last five kilometres it was nervous and chaotic, but the team found each other well and could move up on the right side of the road, bringing fast finisher Josie Nelson into position for the sprint to the line. Managing to avoid a few crashes in the closing two kilometres, Nelson could deliver a really powerful uphill sprint to kick into a gap when it opened up, pushing all the way to the finish to take a strong second place on the stage, and start 2026 off strong for Team Picnic PostNL.

After the finish Nelson said: “We were excited to get started racing here in Australia and today’s finish suited me well with it being an uphill sprint. There’s some new girls here in the team so it’s our first race together but we worked well and everyone did their jobs well. With such a long finish straight we knew we had to be quite patient so we only hit the front from about six kilometres to go. It was a solid lead out from the girls who put me in position and then I surfed the wheels from about one kilometre to go. It was super hectic in the final and we only caught the solo rider about 300m left. I got a bit boxed in there, so opened up my sprint a bit late but was picking riders off in the last 150 metres so it’s a shame the sprint wasn’t slightly longer. Regardless, it was a super strong start to the race for the team and I’m looking forward to the following stages.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I think we rode really well together throughout the whole stage. We were constantly looking for each other and fighting for that position. Running into that final it was obviously hectic but they did really well to find each other in the chaos. We came together, used the space on the right, and put Josie into a really good spot coming into the deep final. She was a little bit blocked when the sprint opened, but she did a nice sprint there to come out and finish fast and showed in those type of uphill sprints she can go really well. It’s a nice start to the race for us.”