Tour Down Under: Paternoster posts debut win for team

Letizia Paternoster won a bunch sprint to give new team Trek-Segafredo their debut win yesterday at the Santos Women’s Tour.

Letizia Paternoster celebrates her stage win from Hahndorf to Birdwood. Picture: Sarah Reed.

Letizia Paternoster is the Italian cyclist with the Australian dad, the hardworking Australian teammate and now a win here as well.

The five-time junior world track champion gave new team Trek-Segafredo a debut win yesterday at the Santos Women’s Tour.

Paternoster, 19, won the bunch sprint at the end of the 112.9km stage from Hahndorf to Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills.

Australian Mitchelton-Scott rider Sarah Roy was second and Paternoster leads her by two seconds on the overall standings.

Roy’s teammate and defending champion, Amanda Spratt, finished 16th at Birdwood and the top Australian is 17th overall, 10 seconds off the pace. Paternoster’s father was born in Melbourne and now lives in Sydney. After the stage she thanked Australian teammate Lauretta Hanson, who helped set her up for the final sprint.

“This was a really great day for the team, for myself,” Paternoster said. “I really want to thank Lauretta … she was the one to be the leader and got me in perfect position to the finish line.”

Paternoster is using the Adelaide race to warm up for next week’s track World Cup round in New Zealand.

She is unlikely to hold the overall lead past today’s second stage in the Barossa, which ends with the brutally steep Mengler’s Hill climb.

Mengler’s Hill, a ­famous local cycling landmark, is where riders such as Spratt will stake their overall claims in the four-day race.

AAP