Trek-Segafredo Women came out on top in the Toward Zero Race Melbourne on Thursday, guided to victory by sprinter Lotta Lepistö.

In a new format for the mid-week criterium event that precedes Saturday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Lepistö was the top point-scorer across five staged sprints on the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, with Ruth Winder helping to seal the title for the new Trek-Segafredo outfit. 

The riders completed 12 laps of the 5.3km track, with sprints at the end of laps 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. Each sprint carried points for the top eight across the line, stretching to the top 10 on the final finish line sprint. 

Lepistö, who was forced to miss the Tour Down Under due to illness, didn't cross the line first on any occasion but scored points at every sprint - including three second places - to top the individual sprint classification. It was a close contest with Chloe Hosking (Ale-Cipollini), who won the second and last sprints but did not place on sprint four. Lepistö finished on 58 points, with Hosking on 56, while Arlenis Sierra (Astana) was a distant third on 31.

While Ale-Cipollini were more of a one-woman band, Trek-Segafredo ran away with the main title thanks to Ruth Winder, who was consistent across all the sprints and finished as the fifth-highest points scorer. Trek-Segafredo finished on 90 points, with Ale-Cipollini second on 63 and Astana third on 37.

"It was hard! I am from Finland, and there it is now -22 degrees (Celsius), so yeah, the heat played a big factor for me today, especially since I haven't been racing here in the hot weather. I was exploding after every sprint today because of the heat," Lepistö said.

"The team was outstanding, and helped a lot, and Ruth (Winder) was amazing, also taking a lot of the points, and that put us in a good place to win the individual race and the team race."

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