Suffering Amanda Spratt survives torrid test for bronze at world titles

“Every part of my body was cramping,’’ said Amanda Spratt after a race she described as the hardest of her life made her a bronzed Aussie.

Amanda Spratt wants to compete at the Tokyo Olympics next year.

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Springwood’s Amanda Spratt has survived “the hardest race I have ever done’’ to win bronze at the world road cycling championships in the UK.

In a survival of the fittest, Dutch world champion Annemiek van Vleuten soloed the final 105km kilometres to claim the rainbow jersey while Spratt and defending world champion Anna Van der Breggen slugged it out for the minor medals in the 149km road test.

“Suffer suffer suffer. It was about who could suffer the most. I predicted it would be before the race and it was,” said Spratt, now the first Australian woman to win two medals in the road race after a silver last year.

Amanda Spratt on her way to winning a bronze medal at the world championships.

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“The race really opened after only 45 kilometres and it was full gas racing which doesn’t really happen very often.

“I tried to play it smart, I chose to not participate in all the attacks but conserve and save my energy for the circuits, which was the smarter move.

“You only had some many bullets you could fire on this circuit and had to be careful how to use them, so I chose to wait to use them until later.”

It was a brutal, brutal race and everyone finished with the tank completely empty

Spratt said she was in intense pain during the torrid endurance test in Yorkshire.

“That was epic. It was the hardest race I have ever done,’’ said the Penrith Cycling Club rider. “Every part of my body was cramping, my thumb cramped in the end.

“I am really proud. I really feel like I have won this bronze medal.”

Spratt was only just pipped for silver by her Dutch rival.

Amanda Spratt wants to compete at the Tokyo Olympics next year.

“Once we got to the final circuit, everyone was dropping like flies,” Spratt said.

“It was attack, after attack, after attack. One rider was dropped, then the next rider, then the next. It was survival of the fittest.

“In the end, Anna (van der Breggen) was just a little too strong in those last five kilometres.

“It was a brutal, brutal race and everyone finished with the tank completely empty.’’

Spratt said the result gives her quest to be riding for Australia at next year’s Olympics a major boost.

“I will take a lot of confidence out of this heading towards Tokyo 2020,” said Spratt who has liked the course in Yorkshire to the one she hopes to race in Japan.

Originally published as Suffering Amanda Spratt survives torrid test for bronze at world titles