Australia is heading into its home UCI Road World Championships with the strongest women’s team in years according to two time podium placer at the event, Amanda Spratt, who has pointed to the depth of its roster and ability to adapt to varied race scenarios.
The New South Wales local will be lining up in the 164km elite/U23 women’s road race on Saturday September 23 to tackle a course that sweeps down the coast line from Helensburgh, through the Mount Keira circuit once and then into six laps of a corner heavy city circuit that includes a climb of Mount Pleasant. The experienced Worlds campaigner will be racing among a team that includes Georgia Baker, Brodie Chapman, Sarah Roy, Josie Talbot, Alex Manly and Grace Brown.
“When I look at our team, I think overall it is probably one of the strongest we’ve had in a number of years, in terms of the depth that we have and the riders that can get deep into the race,” Spratt told Cyclingnews before late last week making the trip to Australia for a final pre-race training block. “That will be our aim. And then I think we’ll be able to play it pretty well there on the final circuits.”
“I think Grace and Alex will be the riders we really want to protect the most and they deserve that position. They have both had a fantastic season and they can both win or podium in the race in different ways, which is exciting.”
Brown has a knack of picking the moment to attack, and then using her time trial skills to stay out the front, while Manly can sprint but also has the ability to hold firm in the shorter climbs – a valuable skill on a course with 2433m of elevation gain. Spratt, who is not front and centre this year as she often has been in recent editions, delivers the climbing strength although would no doubt prefer longer ascents.
The 34-year-old for many years was the obvious choice for Australian team leadership, taking second in the World Championships road race in 2018 and third in 2019. Recent seasons, however, haven’t been kind with her form hit by Iliac artery endofibrosis and the subsequent surgery in October to address it. Now Spratt is showing promising signs that she is bouncing back toward the top of her game ahead of this rare Road World Championships in front of a home.
“It has been a quite a long road to recovery,” said Spratt, adding that the breakthrough point really came for her mid-year.
“Eight months post-surgery was right before the Giro [d’Italia Donne], at the end of my…
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