ROAD WORLDS | sufferfest predicted for women's road race

2019 Australian Women's Team

The Australian women's team is preparing for a sufferfest in Yorkshire when they tackle the 150km women's road race at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships on Saturday 28 September.  

Beginning in Bradford, riders will take in the Yorkshire Dales for 108km of testing terrain before hitting the tricky, technical Harrogate finishing circuit for three laps. Race & Course details.

The third longest race on the women's calendar for the season with almost 2,500m of climbing including an uphill run to the finish line, the women's peloton believes there will be nowhere to hide in Saturday's race. 

“I think it still just as hard as I remember, we died a thousand deaths up the the Lofthouse Climb on Wednesday in training," Spratt joked. "But that climb will be really critical  I comes early so it will be interesting to see how that affects the race as a whole.

“I think it will be on, just be a sufferfest, it’s going to be how much can you suffer on Saturday."

Spratt, the 2018 silver medallist, enters the race in stellar form and will be supported by a strong green and gold outfit of Brodie Chapman (Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank), Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon–SRAM), Lucy Kennedy (Mitchelton-Scott), Lauren Kitchen (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Chloe Hosking (Ale-Cipollini) and Jessica Allen (Mitchelton-Scott). 

“The preparation has gone really well, I am fit, I am strong, targeting this again," Spratt said. "I am excited, I think we have a great Australian team, a lot of depth and experience.

"I think everyone on the team will contribute to a great result and I am really looking forward to it."

Kennedy who was a standout while on her debut at the 2018 World Championships, is nervously excited for the unknown.

“I am preparing for the hardest race I have ever done basically, there are no easy sections on this course whatsoever," said Kennedy who has enjoyed multiple wins in 2019 including Kennedy at Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria and the San Sabastian Classic. “Watching the junior boys on Thursday, they were all on their knees.

“I am less nervous because I have done it once before, but more nervous because the 2018 course suited me better.

"It is a tricky and technical course, and I like that aspect, but there is the unknown of this course."

"It is going to be brutal, super aggressive and hopefully great to watch," said Hosking, who heads into the Championships in hot form after claiming stage wins in Italy and Spain this month. 

Team captain Tiffany Cromwell is predicting the mental challenge will prove the decisive factor on Saturday.

"It is definitely tough, we all knew that, we all expected that," Cromwell said. "It is going to be a race of attrition, a real mental race.  The person who wins on Saturday will be the strongest mentally." 

RACE DETAILS

🏳️‍🌈 Elite Women's Road Race, 150km
🗓 11.40am (8.40pm AEST) Saturday 28 September
💻 LIVE 8.40pm AEST SBS OnDemand and Cycling Central
🇦🇺Brodie Chapman (Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank), Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon–SRAM), Lucy Kennedy (Mitchelton-Scott) ,Lauren Kitchen (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott), Chloe Hosking (Ale-Cipollini), Jessica Allen (Mitchelton-Scott)