Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) claimed the first win of the season for her new team FDJ-Suez, charging across the line ahead of Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) with an assured sprint at the first edition of the women's 1.1 ranked women's Surf Coast Classic – a 118km mid-week race to kick off the action before Saturday's Women's WorldTour event at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
The rider from New Zealand had already made it obvious in South Australia that she had the form, winning the bunch sprint for second place on stage 1 of the Santos Tour Down Under.
Wollaston, second at Hangar Point behind breakaway rider Daniek Hangeveld, just needed the opportunity to deliver when the top step was at stake and Wednesday turned out to be her day.
"I felt really, really strong today," said Wollaston at the end of the race which started in Lorne with a long climb and then ended back on the coast at Torquay after looping inland.
"In the last few races maybe I've struggled mentally, I think, to really stay present in the race and stay attentive and be confident enough that I'm good enough to be there in the final.
"Today, as soon as I started climbing, I knew I had a good shot at the win."
It was a clear-cut victory for Wollaston, ahead of Dygert but the battle for third was tight, with Georgia Baker (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) making it to the podium steps for a second time this week after having come second at the 1.Pro Schwalbe One Day Classic in Adelaide. The winner of that race, Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek), was fourth this time.
The two podiums perhaps mean all that much more to Baker given that they were an unexpected bonus considering the recovery process after being hit by a car in Spain in September. That left her grappling with a concussion that took a long time to recover from, so it was only in mid-November that she could start working her way back to fitness on the bike.
"Getting back after my injury at the end of last year I thought my role would be as more of a domestique over the summer but these opportunities came up within the team and I'm just really happy to be on the podium," said Baker, who added that the Australian squad had worked hard for her all day.
"It's a really good sign for the team for the year ahead."
How it unfolded
There was still an echo of the summer holiday mood in the coastal town of Lorne which hosted the race start but it was straight into the hard work for the riders as they confronted a challenging course for the new 1.1-ranked addition to the calendar.
The teams were getting ready to race with the beach just metres away, the red and yellow flags of the lifeguard-patrolled section flapped in the breeze in the background and the inquisitive cockatoos dropped by on the picnic tables where they were getting ready.
The nearby water may have been the most popular spot in town when the riders rolled in from Adelaide on Monday to temperatures of around 40°C, but that had almost halved for race day so the water was quiet but the roads weren’t.
The race had barely rolled off the start line before heading straight into a challenging 10km climb as the peloton worked its way inland to Deans Marsh. There were several attacks on the climb, with UAE Team ADQ a regular on the front of the peloton.
Still, more riders were going off the back than off the front. While no move stuck, the pressure was certainly on, causing a split in the peloton as it topped the climb, leaving many with a tough early chase.
As the race headed through Deans Marsh with 96km to go there were many riders off behind – some in touch with the convoy but others well behind. They included Canyon-SRAM zondacryprto’s Maike van der Duin and Tiffany Cromwell, Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health), and Maeve Plouffe (ARA Cycling).
More attacks rolled and were caught and, with a little more than 70km of racing to go, there was another substantial split in the field, with 20 riders off the front. The next move was a solo effort with Julie van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal) stretching out a gap that hit 30 seconds with around 55km to go.
In the end, however, it was another of those fleeting breakaways, caught before the feed zone in the farmland alongside the Wurdiboluc Picnic Area with 43km of racing left.
The peloton bunched, surged, and then bunched again several times as it started to head out of the hills and paddocks and drew ever closer to the coast. It didn’t deliver fierce enough crosswinds to really help substantially with any splits but that didn't stop prevent the many heated battles.
At nearly 10km, heading toward Bells Beach the group was still all together and while there were attempts to get away in the stretched-out run to the line, ultimately it all came down to a bunch sprint, with Wollaston put into position by her teammates while Dygert surfing the wheels after the team plan switched to her halfway through after sprinter Van der Duin got set back on the climb.
"It was a good day and the finish, it was super ideal for me getting it strung out," said Dygert of the run to the finish line.
"I was kind of on my own there, so surfing a little bit, and I had to come the long way around but even sprinting against Ally, I think she still would have gotten me even if I had a perfect day."
However, the perfect day was all Wollaston's.
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