Late call up turns into a second win for Sophie Edwards at long-range Warrnambool Women's Classic

Sophie Edwards (Butterfields Ziptrak) won a second edition of the Lochard Energy Warrnambool Women's Cycling Classic on Sunday, repeating her feat of three years ago by sprinting to victory from a leading group in the third round of the Hertz ProVelo Super League.

The debuting Keira Will (Team Redcat) was second in the 156.9 kilometre race starting from Colac. Alyssa Polites (Meridian Bikebug) was third after kicking off the sprint after having launched a string of attacks through the final stages of the race to try and sail away solo instead.

The sprint toward the permanent finish line on Raglan Parade played out from among a group of eight, the remains of a ten-strong bunch that had launched at around 25km to go.

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"It was really windy out on the road today, so we knew we had a really strong team on paper and we wanted to make it as challenging, as hard and aggressive as we could into the crosswinds," Edwards told Cyclingnews.

The splits occurred and Butterfields Ziptrak put themselves in a powerful position with three riders in the strong break of ten, though a touch of wheels took one of their number, Lucie Spurling out of the running at 7km to go, and it happened to be the rider the team had been working to set up to try and claim victory by launching solo.

"Unfortunately, that didn't work, and at the end, then my focus turned to setting up Odette [Lynch] for the sprint and then she started cramping so I was like, 'all right, there's nothing to lose'," said Edwards, after the 2023 victor claimed another win in the race she hadn't even expected to be on the start line of this year.

"I literally got the call up, like, a week ago," she said.

How it unfolded

The race started in Colac, with the field of 49 heading out into mild and dry conditions. It was raining on the finish line in the coastal city of Warrnambool but the peloton dodged the worst of it.

The event – which began in its current stand-alone form in 2022 but has its origins in the women's race which was run amid the Melbourne to Warrnambool from 2015 to 2021 – came the day after the men's 267km race. In that race the podium was populated by the early break, which went at around 20km into the race.

The break in the women's race was established early as well, but this time it was a solo leader, with Vanessa Nanfra (Women's Cycling Development). It didn't, however, stay that way with Carly Coventry (Cycling Development Foundation) working her way across the gap and hauling Nanfra within view at around 60km into the day of racing, with a lead of a little over three-and-a-half minutes to the peloton.

The early break, however, wasn't going to be let run on Sunday, as the bunch was all back together after the halfway mark and the crosswinds started to make a mark as the race skirted the coast.

The splits began to occur and then at a little over 25km to go a powerful group of ten got away, with a solid mix of top teams and top riders.The group included Sophia Sammons and Keira Will of Team Redcat, the trio from Butterfields Ziptrak of Edwards, Lynch and Spurling, Meridian Bikebug had Polites and Amelie Sanders while Isla Bradbury and Mikayla Smith were on board for Nstrmo x Attaquer x CCACHE. There was also a lone individual rider was Meg Macdonald of Women's Cycling Development.

The gap was around two minutes to the peloton as the race neared 15km to go and it was becoming increasingly clear the winner would come from the lead bunch, but there was no waiting around in the group to all ride together to the line. The moves kept coming, prominent among them an attack by Polites at around 13km to go with Lynch clinging on. It certainly wasn't Polites first move, or her last, with the rider determined to do what she could to try and make it to the line solo. "I threw it all out there and you can't ask for much more," Polites told Cyclingnews.

That move, like the others, was pulled back and while the digs kept coming there was some looking around and a regroup with ten kilometres to go in the gusting winds through the farmland outside Warrnambool.

Just under 7km to go and this time as series leader Sammons was pushing the pace at the front when Spurling fell at the back, taking Macdonald with her – who returned to the bike quickly but did not rejoin the group which was now down to eight. The attacks kept rolling but as the line drew ever closer it soon became clear a sprint was on the cards.

Polites went early, having planned to lead out teammate Sanders, though there was soon daylight between the leading three and the rest of the field. Will quickly drew up alongside Polites and Edwards was closing, although Lynch who she had hoped to be leading out was no longer there so the 2023 winner had to make the most of the unexpected situation she was in.

"I thought, I'm on the right wheels. I need to back myself in and if Odette's there, then hopefully we can get two of us on the podium."

As Polites and Will started to fade through the long drag Edwards surged to claim another victory at the prestigious event.

It was seven seconds later that Bradbury, Lynch and Sanders rolled through the line to take the fourth to sixth spots. Hertz ProVelo Super League series leader Sammons came across the line 16 seconds back in seventh, maintaining her leading position in the series.

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