It seems the steeper a hill climb is, the better from Springwood road cyclist Amanda Spratt's point of view.
That appetite helped her team Orica-AIS finish first overall at the four-stage Santos Women's Tour Down Under held in South Australia from January 17-20.
Orica-AIS won the teams classification, Italian-born member Valentina Scandolara finished with the leader's jersey, teammate Melissa Hoskins won two stages and Spratt finished a healthy 5th place in the general classification and eighth place in stage three.
The 27-year-old Olympian told the Gazette the result was particularly pleasing because the field was very strong and featured riders from 12 nations, including three-times world road champion Giorgia Bronzini from Italy.
"In stage one we were able to use the cross winds to our advantage to blow apart the race and set up a solo move for Valentina (Scandolara), who took the win and overall lead," Spratt said.
"From this point the main priority for the team was to keep the leader's jersey."
Sprinter Hoskins won stages two and four, but it was her second place finish in the torturous 71km stage three course that decided the overall winner.
"We raced on the same course as the men, which included the 1.5km Checkers Hill that reached a gradient of 19 per cent on the way up and (enabled) a maximum speed of 91km/h on the descent," Spratt said.
“There were many attacks on this climb, at which point I became the captain and it was up to me to decide what our team did for the remainder of the race.
“We were able to make good use of our numbers, with me and Lizzie Williams riding hard at the front to make sure the group (peleton) would stay away to seal the general classification (overall) win.”
Spratt said her team is in great shape for this time of the year, with the nine-month European season not starting until the end of February.
“Although we didn’t win the Australian Championship this year (held from January 7-11), we were motivated to come out and ride well as a team in the Tour Down Under and from the first stage we showed this.
“We hope to keep the momentum rolling and we feel confident heading into the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (January 31) and the four-day Ladies Tour of Qatar (early February).”
