Mitchelton-Scott’s Amanda Spratt plotting course to Olympic road cycling gold
No one who knows her would ever question cyclist Amanda Spratt’s toughness. And it's a trait she will need in spades over the next year to achieve an ambitious mission.
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Amanda Spratt’s journey began in earnest when her father gave her a white bike worth around $500 and bought second hand from the Trading Post.
The Springwood cyclist is hoping it will reach a peak riding a high tech machine worth around $20,000 fully kitted at the Tokyo Olympics next year.
Her race is more than 10 months away but Spratt already has her eye firmly on the prize of a gold medal for Australia in the women’s road race at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
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Victorian Kathy Watt won Australia’s first road race gold in 1992 in Barcelona
Queenslander Sara Carrigan won the second in 2004 in Athens
Since then, no Australian has even podiumed.
Spratt believes she is the woman, who can rectify this.
And with silver at last year’s world championships and a bronze in this year’s world championships “painfest” she is clearly on the right road to success.
“That was a brutal day, just epic. It was 100km of full gas,” said Spratt of her gutsy win in a torturous women’s world championship road race in September.
“But it was it was a big boost for Tokyo. A big boost.
“My coach Gene Bates and I have done a lot of work with a three year plan.
“We’ve been trialling how to peak for events and that’s clearly been working.
“For us it’s all about doing everything right in the lead-up to the Tokyo road race.”
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Spratt, 31, started doing BMX racing at age nine before crossing over to the track and road as a teenager.
“I rode for fun but started to get good at it,” said the Penrith Cycling Club rider, who had her first big success when she won a bronze in the time trial at the 2004 world junior championships.
Now Spratt is so good she is regarded as one of the top female racers in the world and travels the world with her Mitchelton-Scott professional women’s team.
The next few weeks are busy for Spratt who race in the Bay criterium series in Melbourne before heading to Adelaide for the women’s Tour Down Under in mid January.
Spratt is chasing a record fourth consecutive victory at the event.