Amanda Spratt hopes her climbing ability can assist her in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
She has endured a tough 14 months, however Australian champion Amanda Spratt says she is back and ready to challenge at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
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When asked if she is back, champion Australian cyclist Amanda Spratt simply answered, “yeah, you can write that”.
The 35-year-old is one of the favourites for Saturday’s 143km Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, following her second-place finish in last week’s Tour Down Under.
Her strong form comes after recovering from surgery for iliac artery endofibrosis in October, 2021.
“It’s definitely been hard, probably harder than I gave it credit for,” Spratt said.
“You obviously get given the timelines around the recovery and the surgeon sort of says around six months, then it took more sort of eight months before I started to feel better again.
“I think in hindsight I probably came back a bit quick and sort of missed out on that real preparation phase that I normally get.”
After coming in second to fellow Australian and former teammate Grace Brown at the Tour Down Under, Spratt said it felt nice to “attack” again.
“It felt great to be racing like that again, it’s been a good couple of years since I’ve been able to attack like that on the climb and ride away and really feel aggressive and like my normal self,” Spratt said.
Having won the elite women’s race here in 2016, and finishing third in 2019 and 2020, the course is a familiar one for Spratt.
She said the fact the course had been flipped to go in the opposite direction would make the race “much harder”.
“I think what it changes is that we now sort of have the climbier part of that circuit in the beginning, so I think it could be more aggressive and harder from the start,” she said.
“Obviously we now have two laps of the finish circuit which means we’ll go up to Challambra Crescent twice, so I think overall it’s going to be a much harder race than what we’ve had before.
“The distance as well, it’s 140km now, so it’s more up around that four-hour mark which is sort of more what we’re used to now.”
Having enjoyed attacking the climbs at the Tour Down Under, Spratt said she had a particular part of the Geelong course in mind to help “make the difference”.
“I’m feeling confident and happy with where I’m at,” she said.
“(Tour) Down Under gave me a lot of confidence in terms of how I’m climbing and for sure I’m looking at Challambra Crescent and that finish circuit to really make the difference.
“It’s really nice to be back here, it feels like forever since we’ve been here for this race.
“There’s just a lot of excitement, we always knew this was one of the best one-day races that we do in terms of the support, the coverage and just the professionalism of the race.”
Aussie stars’ ‘good rivalry’ to continue in Geelong
Tour Down Under winner Grace Brown says there is “a good rivalry” brewing with fellow Australian Amanda Spratt ahead of this weekend’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Spratt came in second to Brown at last week’s Tour Down Under in Adelaide, the pair now leading contenders to take out the 143km elite women’s race on Saturday from 12:20pm.
“It’s actually really fun to have both Spratty and I at that high level at the moment, we have really good respect for each other but when it comes down to a race we push each other,” Brown said.
“I think it’s a good rivalry and camaraderie at the same time.”
A Camperdown native, Brown said she has “always fancied” herself in the Geelong race thanks to some familiar roads.
A win at the Tour Down Under has only increased her confidence ahead of Saturday, the FDJ-SUEZ team member preaching how important a strong start to the season is.
“It was a great tour to start off the UCI season with my French team in Australia, so I’m super happy,” she said.
“We’re hoping to continue our success here at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, I’ve always fancied myself on this course so hopefully we can pull it off.
“If you start off on a good level then you can continue that way, you know you’ve already achieved a few things so maybe the pressure’s off a little bit for the rest of the season.
“It’s given me a lot of confidence so hopefully we can continue in this way.”
It’s set to be a family affair for Brown come the weekend, with Geelong the closest race on the calendar to her home town of Camperdown.
“It’s the closest race that I do to my home and all my family come here, familiar roads, plenty of beach holidays down on this coastline so it’s just nice to be somewhere so familiar,” she said.
Defending women’s champion Liane Lippert will not be there on Saturday to defend her crown, with her team Movistar not competing in Australia’s summer racing.
Defending champ to ‘try and go for a victory again’
Defending Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race men’s champion Dries Devenyns says he will “try and go for a victory again” on Sunday, but concedes “that’s not going to be easy”.
The Belgium native will hit the 173km UCI WorldTour certified course on the weekend trying to defend his 2020 crown, with the course to take riders through Geelong, Barwon Heads and Torquay.
A member of team Soudal Quick-Step, Devenyns said if it’s not him on the podium on Sunday afternoon, a fellow member of his team would be ideal.
“That’s for me for sure special because (it’s) not often I win a race, so for sure it will be nice to … try and go for a victory again but for sure that’s not going to be easy,” he said.
“I think I’ve got some good legs after last week competing in (the Tour) Down Under.
“But my main goal is just to have someone on the podium.”
A stacked field is expected to hit the region, the event following on from the Tour Down Under that was held in Adelaide last week.
Devenyns said teammate Mauro Schmid stood a good chance of ending up on the podium, having finished fifth in the Tour Down Under.
He added that three other teams possessed riders capable of taking out the event, including Tour Down Under runner-up Simon Yates.
“I think we could focus on three teams being Ineos (Grenadiers), Jayco and UAE (Team Emirates),” he said.
“In those teams, you have riders like (Michael) Matthews, (Simon) Yates … (Magnus) Sheffield, (Alessandro) Covi, these guys I would say are for me the guys with the most chances of winning the race.
“Mauro Schmid, the Swiss guy who was good in (Tour) Down Under also, I think he has the potential of doing a good job also.”
With the past two Cadel Evans Road Races being cancelled due to Covid, Devenyns said “it’s a good thing for everyone to be back”.
“It’s really nice (to be back), not because I’m the defending (champion), but (because) I always loved to come here, to race here in Australia in January, I find it really relaxing,” he said.
“There’s some good photos when I walk into the hotel, I see (a) big banner with me on there also.
“I have the trophy at home, my little girls, my daughters, they love it, so it’s just a nice memory.”
How new course at Cadel race sets scene for ‘antagonistic' start
A “more antagonistic” course has been promised by race director Scott Sunderland as the stars await the return of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race this weekend.
Tour Down Under winners Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) are set to keep their form going on the Great Ocean Road, after Vine rolled in as the winner in the Adelaide Hills on Sunday.
A flip in the course opens the door for more aggressive moves early on the course through Moriac, Torquay, and Barwon Heads before the men do four laps of Geelong and the women two.
By adding a climb segment just 8.8km into the race, Sunderland said there could be early breakaways.
“We flipped the course around and I think it makes it a lot more antagonistic in the beginning,” he said.
“We are having the first KOM (king of the mountain) 8.8km in and it is a categorised climb. it is still up to the riders if they want to race it or just ride up it.
“It’s there and if you have got a few riders who force a breakaway or put a bit of pressure on the peloton early, they definitely will have the opportunity there.
“The dynamics are going to change a lot. There is just as much in the beginning of the race as the finish.”
Sunderland said “anything can happen” in the packed men’s and women’s fields.
Veteran superstar Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) is locked in to return to the race, as he gets set to tackle the likes of Michael Matthews (Jayco Alula), Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) and defending champion Dries Devenyns (Soudal Quick-Step).
Froome will race alongside 2015 runner-up Simon Clarke.
In the women’s contingent, Amanda Spratt and Brodie Chapman (Trek-Segafredo) are expected to be frontrunners on the hills, alongside past winner Rachel Neylan (Continental Team Cofidis).
After the early climbing, Sunderland said he expected another highlight of the course to come on the way back in to Geelong, where the pace will rise.
“Up through Ocean Grove, that is really cool up through there, I love the section back through Portarlington Rd back to Geelong,” Sunderland said.
“If you have a tailwind they are going to be sitting at 65-70 km/h all the way back in and even going quicker.
“It’s going to be quite the spectacle and the pace will be on because they will be coming in to the final part of the race … there are a lot of things that can happen.”
The elite women’s race will be held on Saturday, with the men to follow on Sunday.
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Originally published as Amanda Spratt hopes her climbing ability can assist her in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
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