Australian Amanda Spratt took the leader’s jersey from Chloe Hosking when the former won stage two of the Women’s Tour Down Under in Birdwood, Australia, today.
The Mitchelton-Scott rider, who won the tour last year, finished the 114.9km stage in 3:04:27.
Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) and Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) claimed second and third respectively.
“From the start there was crosswinds and we tried with some other teams to split it, but it just wasn’t strong enough,” said Spratt.
“From then, we knew we needed to make it really, really hard from kilometre 85 to the finish.
“Jess [Allen], Georgia [Williams] and Gracie [Elvin] did an awesome lead out into the first longer climb and then Lucy [Kennedy] just let rip at the bottom. By the top of that we had five of us left with Grace [Brown], Lucy and I all there.”
Spratt said from that point Kennedy stayed on the front and drove it for 10km into the final climb so Brown and herself could one-two and try to get rid of the others.
“In the end I couldn’t get rid of Liane and Ruth, but I decided at that point the GC was more important so the three of us were actually working almost all of the way to the finish.
“I was pretty nervous coming into the finish. 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 about to pull that off.”
View more results below.
Australian Amanda Spratt won stage two of the Women’s Tour Down Under in Birdwood, Australia, today. Photo: Getty Images
Stage two
| 1 | Amanda Spratt | AUS | Mitchelton-Scott | 3:04:27 |
| 2 | Ruth Winder | USA | Trek-Segafredo | |
| 3 | Liane Lippert | GER | Team Sunweb | |
| 4 | Grace Brown | AUS | Mitchelton-Scott | +0:00:02 |
| 5 | Jaime Gunning | AUS | Specialized Women's Racing | +0:00:13 |
| 6 | Peta Mullens | AUS | Roxsolt Attaquer | +0:00:15 |
| 7 | Rachel Neylan | AUS | UniSA Australia | +0:00:18 |
| 8 | Ella Harris | NZL | Canyon-SRAM | |
| 9 | Shara Gillow | AUS | FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope | |
| 10 | Juliette Labous | FRA | Team Sunweb |
General classification
| 1 | Amanda Spratt | AUS | Mitchelton-Scott | 6:21:19 |
| 2 | Ruth Winder | USA | Trek-Segafredo | +0:00:04 |
| 3 | Liane Lippert | GER | Team Sunweb | +0:00:05 |
| 4 | Grace Brown | AUS | Mitchelton-Scott | +0:00:12 |
| 5 | Chloe Hosking | AUS | Rally Cycling | +0:00:21 |
| 6 | Jaime Gunning | AUS | Specialized Women's Racing | +0:00:23 |
| 7 | Leah Kirchmann | CAN | Team Sunweb | +0:00:24 |
| 8 | Peta Mullens | AUS | Roxsolt Attaquer | +0:00:25 |
| 9 | Juliette Labous | FRA | Team Sunweb | +0:00:27 |
| 10 | Shara Gillow | AUS | FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope | +0:00:28 |
