After two years of cancellations the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race has been run and won, with two exciting men’s and women’s WorldTour races in contrasting conditions and winners but the common thread of a dynamic and unpredictable racing across a challenging course.
It was a battle of the climbers on Saturday in the heat and sun, with Amanda Spratt (Trek-Segafredo) and Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez) breaking away on the final climb of Challambra and holding off the chase to take the 143km race down to a two-way sprint, won by Dutch rider Adegeest.
Then on Sunday conditions had flipped for the men’s race and it was cool and drizzly weather that greeted the riders and crowds. Headwinds on crucial portions of the circuit helped made it hard work for the attackers and ultimately it came down to a reduced bunch on the run into the Geelong finish line. Riders with the reputation and speed of Michael Matthews and Caleb Ewan may have been in that group but after the tough 176km race it was a surprise victor, with the early move of Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) winning out.
It was a race of surprises, ever changing fortunes and with a new spin on the traditional course as riders headed out of Geelong to the rolling farmland hills and back via the coast rather than the other way round. It was a fiery finale to an intense January of racing, but now it is time to take a closer look at some of the key takeaways from those final days of international racing in Australia, that also marked the start of the long season to come.
Watch out for those holding an Esport crown
Former Zwift Academy winner and World Esport champion Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) made his mark at the Tour Down Under and as the racing transferred to Geelong, it was the turn of another wearer of the Esport rainbow stripes to make their mark, Loes Adegeest.
Adegeest stepped up to Women’s WorldTour squad FDJ-Suez this year and even in her first race with the French team was noticeable in her formidable climbing strength as the Dutch rider helped Grace Brown in pursuit of the Tour Down Under victory. By the time she got to the first climb of Challambra Crescent in Geelong it was clear that she was the one most likely to hold onto an attacking Amanda Spratt so the French squad quickly shifted away from plan A – Brown – and threw in behind the Dutch rider, who didn’t disappoint.
That made it score two for the Esport World Champions this season, and it has only just begun.
A Women’s WorldTour…
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