Elite Women’s Ride goes right to the line

UNHERALDED Dutch cyclist Loes Adegeest has narrowly beaten Australian star Amanda Spratt to win the Elite Women’s Ride in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (CEGORR).

Adegeest and Spratt broke clear on the second and final climb up Challambra Crescent with 10km left in the 143km event, which started and finished on the Geelong Waterfront today (Saturday, January 28).

In her first UCI Women’s WorldTour season, Adegeest was too quick for Spratt at the finish as they finished four seconds clear of their chasers.

Another Dutch rider, Nina Buijsman, won the sprint for third place.

Spratt, who is returning to top form after major surgery at the end of 2021, also finished runner-up earlier this month at Adelaide’s Tour Down Under.

Adegeest is the FDJ-Suez team-mate of Australian star Grace Brown, who beat Spratt to win the Santos Tour.

Spratt and her Australian Trek-Segafredo teammates Brodie Chapman and Lauretta Hanson played their tactical cards well, but could not pull off the win.

With 26.5km left, the race went up Challambra for the first time.

Spratt and Chapman were prominent in a front group of nine that formed over the top of the steep 1.2km climb.

While those attackers were caught before the start of the final lap at 16.7km, predictably the back of the peloton had been decimated and the race was down to about 30 riders.

CEGORR’s UCI WorldTour Elite Men’s Race begins tomorrow (Sunday, January 29) at 11.10am.

– WITH AAP