Australian national road race champion Amanda Spratt led home an ORICA-AIS one-two in the women’s event at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Saturday.
Spratt beat teammate and defending champion Rachel Neylan to the line by 48 seconds, with Dani King (Wiggle High5) finishing a second later and completing the podium.
“It was perfect from kilometer zero. We had Loren Rowney, Chloe McConville and Sarah Roy who did a lot of work to set myself, Rachel and Tayler Wiles up for the final,” Spratt said at the finish. “It was just a battle once we got to the climbs. We were constantly attacking and the peloton just kept whittling down, so we just kept the pressure and just kept sticking at it. I thought Rachel's move would stay away with Chloe Hosking, but then it came back so I countered over the top and managed to get away."
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Orica-AIS dominated the race, with Spratt’s winning move coming inside the final 25 kilometres, after she and her teammates had softened up the peloton over the 113 kilometre course.
The first hour of racing saw a number of attacks from the field but Wiggle and Orica keep the pace in the peloton high, not allowing for any serious threats to escape their clutches.
Jessica Allen (High5 Dream Team) finally broke free after 50 kilometres of action and she was later joined by Taryn Heather (Bike Bug), with the pair building a maximum lead of 90 seconds.
That brought Orica and the rest of the well-represented teams back into play and the pair were reeled in with 30 kilometres to go.
Neylan made her most aggressive move with Hosking joining her but the vastly reduced peloton – down to fewer than 20 riders at this point – had just enough to catch the pair.
However with the field starting to weaken, Spratt made her move on the finishing circuit. With nine kilometres to go, the gap was just 12 seconds but she more than hung on, with Neylan having enough to hold off King in the sprint.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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