Lidl-Trek strategised that patience would be a virtue at the Women's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Saturday.
To a degree, it was, with Niamh Fisher-Black, a pre-race favourite, placing seventh in a reduced bunch sprint claimed by Ally Wollaston (FDJ Suez), while Amanda Spratt finished 11 seconds off the pace for 13th.
Fisher-Black and Australian veteran Spratt, who has been transitioning from leader into the role of road captain, embodied the team’s two-prong attack at the one-day race in Geelong, Victoria, but had no answer for the in-form Wollaston’s speed at the waterfront finish.
"She was impressive I have to say," said Spratt, who won the race in 2016 and has been on the podium three times since.
"When we saw her still there in the finish we thought, ‘OK, it's going to be hard,’ and FDJ still had some numbers up there, so yeah, chapeau, she's obviously got great legs at the moment."
Spratt was surprised by the slow start to the race, adding it wasn’t as aggressive as Lidl-Trek had anticipated. “It was a little bit of gutter action but not really. It just seemed like everyone was sort of waiting today,” she said.
The Challambra ascent proved as decisive as ever but not enough to lose the likes of Paris Olympic track medallist Wollaston.
"It exploded and split apart on the last two climbs, but for us, the group was still quite big and, yeah, I think there's not too much more that we could have done today," Spratt continued.
"Often, we've been too aggressive and then run out of numbers on this race, so we wanted to be patient and wait for those last two climbs and see what we could do there.
"Challambra I exploded a bit and then I bridged across on the next one, but we had Niamh up there the whole time doing well, and covering what she could.
"The idea was for her to do the sprint and me to try and make an attack in the last kilometre if I could. I tried, but I think my attack was about the speed of the lead-out, so it didn't go very far."
Spratt has a quick turnaround between the Australian summer of cycling, and her first race of the season in Europe, as she builds toward the classics and Giro.
"I'm racing again in a week-and-a-half in Valencia," she said. "It's been really enjoyable with the team. The legs are good, and now I move on to Europe.
"I’m sort of moving into a different role within the team, more of a supporter and teaching the younger riders and road captaining. That’s something I’m really enjoying and happy to do."
