Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Women 2024

Rosita Reijnhout holds off chase group to win Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

Rosita Reijnhout (Visma-Lease a Bike) surprised everyone, including herself, when she soloed to victory at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. The 19-year old Dutch rider held off chasers Dominka Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) to claim her first professional win. 

Reijnhout and Wlodarczyk bridged up to an attack by Uttrup Ludwig on the second and final climb of Challambra Crescent. Sensing a lack of cooperation, Reijnhout went off on a daring solo move, and though the Dane was closing in on her, the teenager held on to take the win in Geelong.

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Taking place on January 27, 2024, the Deakin University Elite Women’s Road Race at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race will be the first one-day classics and the second event in the Women’s WorldTour following the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under. 

The Victorian race was first held in 2015 and the Deakin University Elite Women’s Road Race was added to the Women’s WorldTour calendar in 2017.

In 2023, Loes Adegeest (FDJ-SUEZ) won the Deakin University Elite Women's Race at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in a two-rider sprint against Amanda Spratt (Trek-Segafredo).

Last held in 2020, the mid-week race, the Geelong Classic, on January 24, makes its return as the official precursor to the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

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After making some adjustments from previous years and running the race in the opposite direction in its 2023 return after a two-year hiatus, the organisers have continued with the same Deakin University Elite Women’s route for this year’s race.

With the start and finish at the Geelong waterfront, the 143km course takes the riders out of Geelong and past the rolling farmland hills, before heading toward the Surf Coast, Bells Beach and heading back to Geelong via the Great Ocean Road. 

The Geelong loop, tackled twice by the women, includes the punchy Challambra climb, which has a habit of splitting the field before riders head back toward the waterfront for the final dash to the line. In the five years of racing it has most often been a solo victor, or small bunch sprint to decide the race.