Lidl-Trek strategised that endurance could be a distinctive feature on the Girls’s Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race on Saturday.
To some extent it was once, with Niamh Fisher-Black, a pre-race favorite, striking 6th in a discounted bunch dash claimed by way of Best friend Wollaston (FDJ Suez), whilst Amanda Spratt completed 11 seconds off the tempo for thirteenth.
Fisher-Black and Australian veteran Spratt, who has been transitioning from chief into the position of street captain, embodied the staff’s two-prong assault on the one-day race in Geelong, Victoria, however had no resolution for the in-form Wollaston’s pace on the waterfront end.
“She was impressive I have to say,” mentioned Spratt, who received the race in 2016 and has been at the podium thrice since.
“When we saw her still there in the finish we thought, ‘OK, it’s going to be hard,’ and FDJ still had some numbers up there, so yeah, chapeau, she’s obviously got great legs at the moment.”
Spratt was once shocked by way of the gradual begin to the race, including it wasn’t as competitive as Lidl-Trek had expected. “It was a little bit of gutter action but not really. It just seemed like everyone was sort of waiting today,” she mentioned.
The Challambra ascent proved decisive as ever however no longer sufficient to lose the likes of Paris Olympic monitor medallist Wollaston.
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“It exploded and split apart on the last two climbs, but for us, the group was still quite big and, yeah, I think there’s not too much more that we could have done today,” Spratt persisted.
“Often, we’ve been too aggressive and then run out of numbers on this race, so we wanted to be patient and wait for those last two climbs and see what we could do there.
“Challambra I exploded a bit and then I bridged across on the next one, but we had Niamh up there the whole time doing well, and covering what she could.
“The idea was for her to do the sprint and me to try and make an attack in the last kilometre if I could. I tried, but I think my attack was about the speed of the lead-out, so it didn’t go very far.”
Spratt has a handy guide a rough turnaround between the Australian summer time of biking, and her first race of the season in Europe, as she builds towards the classics and Giro.
“I’m racing again in a week-and-a-half in Valencia,” she mentioned. “It’s been really enjoyable with the team. The legs are good, and now I move on to Europe.
“I’m sort of moving into a different role within the team, more of a supporter and teaching the younger riders and road captaining. That’s something I’m really enjoying and happy to do.”
