Devenyns and Lippert win sixth edition of Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

THE sixth edition of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race was held in wild weather conditions, with the male and female riders battling extreme heat, pouring rain and strong winds across the four days.

Local riders looking to join in also had a hard time of it – the heat forced the rescheduling of the Family Ride on the Geelong waterfront from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, and the wet weather forced the cancellation of the 115km People’s Ride.

In Saturday’s Elite Women’s Race, German rider Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) crossed the line all alone to claim victory.

Lippert attacked on the last climb to finish 15 seconds ahead of the chasing group in the opening race of the 2020 UCI Women’s WorldTour calendar.

I had a really good look at the course and I know I’m really explosive,” she said. “I can do efforts like this pretty good – three minutes full gas. So I knew I might end up alone or with one or two riders but in the end I was alone.”

She finished ahead of 2019 winner Arlenis Sierra (Astana) and 2016 winner Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-SCOTT).

Dries Devenyns beat Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos) in a two-man sprint in Sunday’s Elite Men’s Race to make it back-to-back victories for Deceuninck -Quick-Step.

The pair escaped from a larger group in the final five kilometres of the 171km race to ensure a sprint finish.

“It’s a very special day for me. I like this race a lot,” Devenyns said. “Each time I’m here I make a good effort – last year for (Elia) Viviani and the year before also. But when we were in a group it didn’t look like Sam (Bennett) or my teammates were coming back, so I got involved for victory and happy to take it.”

For the third year in a row, Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) finished third.