Spratt secures third consecutive Tour Down Under win

Amanda Spratt has won the 2019 Santos Women’s Tour Down Under – securing her third successive crown with a clean finish in Adelaide’s East End.

The Mitchelton-SCOTT rider’s love affair with Australia’s highest UCI female classification stage race continued – as many tipped to – with her anticipated kick halfway up Mengler Hill on Friday cementing her insurmountable lead.

By the time the peloton had run though the Adelaide Hills on Saturday, the NSWIS athlete’s lead was still comfortably intact, meaning Sunday’s race was a simple matter of not falling foul of the bitumen circuit.

Fellow NSW Institute of Sport cyclist Sarah Roy, also of Mitchelton-SCOTT, won the Ziptrak® Points Classification, whilst Rachel Neylan (NSWIS) came in third overall.

Speaking after the race, Spratt said the race now formed a key part of her preparation for the year ahead, and remains a victory she seeks to bag each year.

“When I sat down with my coach in October last year, he asked me what my goals were and the first thing I said was to win the Santos Tour Down Under,” she said.

“It’s a home race, an Australian team. It’s really, really special.

“Everyone in the team is strong in their own right and we really come to together for a team goal, everyone is executing and committing it.

“It’s really important, I love the race, it’s the best way to start out, it’s a big goal for me and I just really love and I’m proud of how much the race is going in Australia.”

With the result all but decided coming into the final race, it was a battle for the minor placings that would animate the day.

Sarah Roy’s defence of the sprint classification took some hard work, with Ale Cipollini’s Chloe Hosking always set to threaten stealing maximum points at the Ziptrak® intermediate sprints.

However, Roy salvaged points over her fellow Australian and TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank rival Alison Jackson to eventually claim fourth in the race and cement the classification victory.