Battling scorching temperatures in the four-day Santos Women’s Tour in South Australia last week, Springwood cyclist Amanda Spratt kept her competition at bay to be declared the overall winner, her first international tour win in six years.
Spratt set the standard early, winning the 106km first stage by 19 seconds from Janneke Ensing from Holland.
It was a tough first stage, the final 20km a killer.
“That is where we really made a difference as a team and just pushed the pace on every climb until I eventually got away,” Spratt said.
After the final climb it was a 3km descent to the first stage finish. “It was probably the most painful 3km of my life,” the 29-year-old said.
“I wanted to get as much time as I could for the overall classification so there was no time to relax and enjoy it until I had crossed the line. And even then, I was completely empty.”
She retained her lead through the next three stages, aided by her Orica-Scott teammates.
“After I won the first stage then they all put aside any personal ambitions to make sure that we could keep the overall lead,” Spratt said.
“I was really proud of the whole team and it was pretty special to see them working so hard for me in every stage.”
Spratt’s final race before she returns to European competition is her Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race title defence on January 28. It’s the first time the women’s race will be broadcast live.
