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Martina Fidanza (Visma-Lease a Bike) sprinted to victory in the 40km women's Cadel's Criterium on Thursday, capitalising on an ideally timed lead out to hold off the pursuit from a duo of SD Worx-Protime riders.
Marta Lach came second, after having to find an alternate route to the front after being squeezed off the lead out of her SD Worx-Protime teammate Barbara Guarischi, who ended up coming third.
It was a messy sprint lead in to finish a strung out race, with many of those that were expected to be in contention shuffled away from the front. Visma-Lease a Bike, however, managed to find each other when it counted and give Fidanza a strong lead out that left her rivals with plenty of ground to try and recoup.
"The sprint was actually perfect. I found my teammates in the last 500m because in this crit it was so easy to lose the team but then we found each other," Fidanza told broadcasters SBS, adding that it was the ideal set up by her teammate. "I had just to finalise it, so really thanks to the team that believed in me."
The criterium was introduced to replace Wednesday's cancelled Surf Coast Criterium, with the decision to not go ahead with both the women's and men's 1.Pro events announced on Tuesday with a fire burning in the Otways, temperatures soaring to 45°C and fire conditions at Extreme levels.
The criterium played out on a 2km Eastern Gardens circuit, with the women racing 20 laps at a venue that will be familiar for many given it hosted the 2024 women's mid-week run in race of the Geelong Classic, which from 2025 was replaced by the Surf Coast Classic.
It was a packed field lining up on Thursday, filled with riders out for the Women's WorldTour season starters of the Tour Down Under and opening the legs ahead of Saturday's Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
They certainly signalled early that it wasn't going to be an easy hour ahead, with the field strung out and attacks flying from start to finish. Among the early aggressors were Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) and Josie Nelson (Picnic PostNL), a formidable duo who got out front on lap four, however it was a threat the peloton was determined to reel back in.
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The digs then continued on the undulating course with light cross-winds and on lap eight Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) also laid down an attack. Mikayla Harvey (SD Worx-Protime) was quick to join and so did others including Liv AlUla Jayco's Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Mackenzie Coupland, but again it didn't last beyond a couple of laps with the strung-out field behind pulling it back in.
The attacks and splits continued to fly through the race but so did the determination to hold it firm for a sprint and the field went through the line for the final lap all together. There was a battle for position and the sprint opened early, with Fidanza getting the ideal lead out and making the most of it.
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.
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