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Amanda Spratt took her first victory in the Australian national champion’s jersey at Santos Women’s Tour Down Under, Friday.
Spratt, defending Tour Down Under champion, beat US national champion Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) and Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) in a sprint after the trio broke away from the pack with 30km to go. The stage victory gives Spratt a slim lead on GC.
“I was pretty nervous coming into the finish,” said Spratt.
“Normally people would not expect me to beat those two riders in a sprint, but I just know that after a really hard race I do actually have a pretty good sprint so I’m pretty excited to pull that off.”
The action was dominated by Spratt’s Mitchelton-Scott team, who drove the pace through the early part of the race and forced the split with 30km to go.
The team placed three of their riders into the breakaway, Spratt, Lucy Kennedy, and Grace Brown, alongside Winder and Lippert. The Australian team used their strength in numbers to attack and counter-attack Winder and Lippert, before Brown and Kennedy fell off the pace.
“In the end I couldn’t get rid of Liane and Ruth, but I decided at that point the GC was more important,” said Spratt. “So the three of us were actually working almost all of the way to the finish.”
The remaining trio went into the finish together, with Spratt sitting in the wheels and launching from behind Winder and Lippert to take the stage win.
Two stages remain in the race, with a 110km hilly stage into Stirling Saturday and criterium in Adelaide, Sunday.
GC after Stage 2:
1. Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) 6:21:19
2. Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) +0:04
3. Liane Lippert (Team Subweb) +0:05