New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston became the first back-to-back winner of the Mapei Cadel Evans, Great Ocean Road Race on Saturday.
Outsprinting a group of 11 other riders, Wollaston (FDJ United – SUEZ) win was as much a show of her strength and class as of her teammates of whom two finished in the lead group.
Wollaston won the 142.4km WorldTour race from second placed Great Britain’s Josie Nelson (Team Picnic PostNL) and Spaniard Mireia Benito (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) in third.
Wollaston came into this race on great form after winning the first two stages of the Two Down Under in Adelaide recently.
However, despite her favouritism, she rose above pressure to deliver as well as anyone could.
The race began at 12.40pm in overcast, humid conditions and in 26 Celsius temperatures.
No sooner had the peloton left Geelong, Switzerland’s Petra Stiasny (Human Powered Health) attacked and found herself alone in a brave but inevitably futile attack.
Stiasny rode away to extend her lead to a maximum of 7 minutes 47 seconds with 100km to go, but then the peloton began to reel in her advantage and a steady pace.
With 70km to go, her lead was down to 3 mins 20 secs, but then the peloton’s tempo lifted under the impulse of the FDJ United – SUEZ, Lidl – Trek and UAE Team ADQ teams.
With the finishing circuit looming – including two ascents of Challambra Crescent – the scene was set for an explosive finale, especially once Stiasny was caught with 35km to go.
The nerves in the regrouped peloton showed on the first approach to Challambra after Stiasny’s capture. The fight for position saw five riders crash – Italian Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), Canadian Olivia Baril (Movistar Team), Australian Josie Talbot (Liv Alula Jayco) and Belgians Ella Heremans (Team Picnic PostNL) and Lotte Claes (Fenix-Premier Tech).
The pace up front accelerated as expected with World Champion Magdeleine Vallieres (Ed Education – Oatly) of Canada setting the pace, eventually splitting the peloton in two.
As they went through the start/finish in Geelong, a reduced main group led and Wallaston was not among them. But her teammates helped to get her back in the race as a number of riders such as her rode back into the fray in time for the second ascent of Challambra.
Heading into the second ascent of Challambra the front group numbered about 40 riders. Then on the lower slopes of Challambra with 10km to go, the race again exploded. Prominent in the fast pace was Vallieres once again, and then Spaniard Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ).
A lead group of 15 riders formed before attacks led to a five-strong lead group with six kilometres to go followed by seven chasers, including Wollaston. The groups merged with 4.4km to go, including Wollaston and teammates, Great Britain’s Lauren Dixon and Amber Kraak. Coming into the sprint, Wallaston were perfectly placed to finish off a great team ride.
Interview with Ally Wollaston:
First, back-to-back Cadel Evans winner. How does that feel?
It was definitely the goal for us this year to come back and win. To pull it off today is an amazing feeling. I’m so, so proud.
There was a lot of seesawing up Challambra. When did you know ‘I can do this again’.
Not until the group came back, I think. My teammates did an incredible job to get me back to the front end of the race. There was a pretty impressive split after the second kicker.
If I didn’t have my teammates, the race would have been gone for sure. It was a really, really strong breakaway. So I think once that came back I knew I was in with a really good chance.
It’s a real dream start to the season, and I think every year you want to do better than the last and I’ve already started this year better than last year. It’s a really dream start and I’m so looking forward to carrying this momentum into the rest of the season.
Did you put extra work into your climbing ahead of this year?
Not particularly. I think last year I actually felt more comfortable up Challambra. I was never really not in touch with the race last year and this year I feel that I struggled a lot more. It could just be that we rode up faster this year, it was tough. It was really tough out there today. A race like today is my dream race, a reduced bunch sprint, where the real sprinters struggle a little bit more. A reduced bunch sprint is my favourite.
On her teammates
There were six of us really riding together today … There’s no way I would have won without them. Everyone played a really key role even in controlling the early breakaway. We put our hands up pretty early and said we want to control this race. I’m really proud that we did that, really took the race on. After Tour Down Under, I struggled a little bit with sickness … So, I wasn’t hugely confident going into today. They kept me grounded and I had a few tough words in my race radio saying I could do it. The belief was pretty strong from the team.
Results – Top 5
- Ally Wollaston (TFS) [New Zealand] 03:54:55
- Josie Nelson (TPP) [Great Britain] +0
- Mireia Benito (AGS) [Spain]
- Mackenzie Copeland (LIV) [Australia] +0
- Dominika Włodarczyk (UAD) [Poland] + 0
For full results of the race, click: HERE