An Ardennes horizon and the easing Olympic obsession – Amanda Spratt

SINTKWINTENSLENNIK BELGIUM APRIL 10 Amanda Spratt of Australia and Team Lidl Trek prior to the 9th De Brabantse Pijl La Fleche Brabanconne 2024 Womens Elite a 1349km one day race from SintKwintens Lennik to Overijse on April 10 2024 in SintKwintens Lennik Belgium Photo by Luc ClaessenGetty Images
Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) before De Brabantse Pijl Women on Wednesday (Image credit: Getty Images)

As Amanda Spratt sat in Australia at the start of a new season, surveying the landscape of the year behind and what was on the horizon for the season ahead, the now rapidly approaching Ardennes Classics once again stood out.

The 2023 season has traversed some rocky terrain for both the Lidl-Trek team and the Australian rider – “unsatisfying I think is the way I’d describe it” said Spratt. Illness played on her season though it was not without some high points and indications that she had well and truly built back from the problems she faced with Iliac artery endofibrosis

Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.