Racing

Squad wins best team competition at Tour Down Under

Georgia Williams third on final podium

January 17, 2023

It’s been an incredible three days of racing for our squad at Tour Down Under with Georgia Williams taking third overall and the team winning the best team competition.

Coming into today’s final stage, our squad knew that the race would come down to the Corkscrew climb and the furious descent to the finish line. The peloton shed riders with each pedal stroke up the Corkscrew but Georgia was supported by teammates Abi Smith and Krista Doebel-Hickok.

“I was not feeling super great on the climb,” Georgia says, “but Abi came past me and set a really good pace. She paced me all the way back up to the group in front and I went with them all the way to the finish. It was perfect.”

Sport director Daniel Holm Fodder sees today’s result as an ideal building block for the year.

“For Georgia to finish on the GC podium is very big for her but also for the team. It’s super important for the team to start the season like this,” he says.

It was a true team effort for Georgia to reach the podium and the results showed it. While teams are allowed to have six riders, injury meant we lined up with four riders. Rather than let that be discouraging, it only further motivated Abi, Georgia, Krista, and Lauren to dig deep in support of one another. This commitment to one another placed three of our riders in the top ten and earned us the title of best team at the 2023 Tour Down Under.

The Tour Down Under always offers an exciting start to the season and this year was no exception. Crosswinds on the first day put the peloton on edge but our quartet kept their cool with Lauren and Georgia both finishing safely towards the front of the bunch. The following day took the peloton through the rolling hills east of Adelaide. The stage was hard to control with so many teams hungry for a result but our team kept their focus. Lauren rode in the late breakaway which removed pressure from our shoulders before Abi led Georgia out for the final sprint. Georgia finished second on the stage which launched her to second overall. On today’s final stage, Lauren covered the early moves and Abi and Krista looked after Georgia on the Corkscrew. Two riders up the road meant the overall podium was out of contention but Georgia powered to the front of the bunch sprint and finished the day third, securing third place on the final podium.

“Considering we started the race with just four, it’s all the sweeter,” Abi says.

Congratulations for an amazing start to 2023!

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Tour Down Under
Jan. 15, 2023 – Jan. 17, 2023
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Kicking off 2023 Down Under

Georgia Williams

Georgia Williams is a rider who loves the hilly classics, stages races, and time trials. She got her initial start as a track cyclist and after representing New Zealand in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2016 Olympics, she decided to fully dedicate her time to road racing.

She is a versatile rider with a pair of medals from back to back Commonwealth Games, four time trial national titles, two road race national championships, and top ten finishes on both stage and one-day races in nearly every season of her career.

Georgia’s 2023 season got off to a strong start. At Tour Down Under, she earned a pair of top-three finishes on the last two stages which saw her finish third on the overall. Her results helped the team win the best team competition. The following month, she returned to New Zealand where she earned her fifth time trial national championship. Georgia was an integral member of our Giro d’Italia Donne squad where her work helped to place teammate Veronica fourth on the final general classification.

She loves to race aggressively and support her teammates but what keeps her motivated is the simple joy that riding brings her, day in, day out. Georgia takes advantage of the travel opportunities that come along with racing and you’ll often find her exploring new routes and training in the fresh air with her friends. She spends the racing season in Girona, Spain and heads back to New Zealand for the austral summer.

Now entering her 11th season as a pro, Georgia is a seasoned veteran who is eager to share her knowledge and experience with her teammates. With her easy-going attitude, she is a natural mentor.

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Lauren Stephens

Lauren Stephens is the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB veteran. The former math teacher turned professional cyclist with the team in 2013, and has raced with the team for all but one season of her career.

Name a type of riding and odds are that Lauren has raced it — and at an elite level. She wrapped up the 2022 season by racing the marathon mountain bike world championships in Denmark, the road world championships in Australia, and the inaugural gravel world championships in Italy. The 2021 road US national champion, Lauren placed third in both the road and time trial at the US national championships the following year.

When she was in high school, Lauren used to spend her summers riding her mountain bike 18-20 miles on the road, a distance she thought was crazy at the time. She never imagined that riding would become her career (or that 20 miles would seem like a short ride!).

Lauren is an all-rounder who can climb, chase down breakaways, and time trial. She loves to get off road and is an avid gravel rider. She has twice won the 100 mile distance at Unbound Gravel.

As much as she loves to explore the world, she calls her home roads in Texas her favorite place to ride. She and her husband have made it an annual tradition to bikepack to their family’s house for Thanksgiving, always picking a new route that covers a few hundred miles.

Lauren says that her results come from steadily chipping away at her goals each season and from a high level of motivation combined with a healthy dose of stubbornness.

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Abi Smith

Abi Smith started cycling as a four-year-old when she would ride her pink bike through the village to collect eggs from her neighbor’s chickens. Today, she is proud to race her second professional season with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB (the fact that she now gets to race a pink bike is the icing on the cake!).

Growing up in Yorkshire, England, her parents encouraged Abi and her older brother to spend lots of time outside and keep active, and signed them up for the Yorkshire Regional Triathlon Series. Abi competed in the series for eight years before concluding that cycling was her strongest discipline. She switched her focus to road racing in 2018 as a 16-year-old, lining up for the National Youth Road Series that year. Her strength and consistency caught the attention of a British Cycling coach, who offered her a spot in the junior academy program the following season. Abi cut her teeth on the road and on the track with the British Cycling Academy. She calls WorldTour racing with the team the biggest opportunity of her life.

The 20-year-old is focused on gaining experience in the peloton and learning from her teammates. The 2022 season offered Abi plenty of new experiences, including spending over 100 kilometers in the breakaway at Scheldeprijs, racing the 10-stage Giro Donne, and competing in the Commonwealth Games.

She lists her diesel engine as her greatest asset, which is useful for chasing down breakaways, late race attacks and time trials.

During down time, Abi often turns to art. You can see some of her work here.

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Krista Doebel-Hickok

For Krista Doebel-Hickok, 2023 marks a decade of being a professional cyclist. She got her introduction to European racing when she joined the team for the 2014 and 2015 seasons and notched her first stage wins at Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche and Tour de Feminin.

Krista returned to EF Education-TIBCO-SVB in 2022 and raced a brilliant season. She placed eighth in Flèche Wallonne before heading to the US to race the Tour of the Gila. At Gila, she won two of the five stages, including the opening stage and the individual time trial. She won the mountains classification and was second overall. She had two more top ten finishes at Emakumeen Nafarroako and the Vuelta a Burgos. After racing both the Giro Donne and the Tour de France Femmes, Krista had great form at the Tour Fèminin International des Pyrénées. She and her teammates won the opening team time trial and Krista went on to win the next two stages in commanding style, taking the general classification as well as the points and mountain jerseys.

Before she discovered her love of riding, the California native was a proficient runner. As a full-scholarship cross-country and track & field athlete and Summa Cum Laude student at Vanderbilt University, she broke the 10,000 meter school record while maintaining a 4.0 GPA in Economics.

Upon graduation in December 2011, Krista moved back to Southern California, and bought a bike to find some joy in exercise and competition once again. She hasn’t looked back.

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