Chapman wins women's Race Torquay

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Brodie Chapman (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) took victory on home turf at the inaugural women's Race Torquay one-day race in the Victorian seaside town of Torquay on Thursday, holding off the peloton and winning alone after attacking from a four-woman breakaway with two kilometres to go.

The Australian beat Roxsolt-Attaquer's Emily Herfoss, Taylor Wiles (Trek-Segafredo) and Lauren Stephens (Tibco-SVB), with Rally's Chloe Hosking bringing home the bunch some 30 seconds down.

"It wasn't my plan to be alone; I wanted a solid break," explained Chapman after taking victory. "I was so done when they came across, but Lauren and I worked well together, and the others were so strong that I started to think that we would hold off the peloton.

"I didn't plan my attack at the end; I sort of rolled out of a corner a bit ahead and thought, 'I'll just hit it now, and who knows?'

"It was so tough in the heat," added Chapman. "I was suffering for the first couple of laps, not knowing if I could survive. It was so hard, but I came good about 50km into the race, though.

"I'm actually really shocked. I'm in total disbelief and it's just a relief that I can go for a swim in the ocean now," she said.

How it unfolded

Chapman was arguably the rightful winner of the 104km race after instigating what started as a one-rider move on lap five of the eight-lap race, attracting first the national road race champion of Chile, Denisse Ahumada (Agolico), and later, on lap seven, Tibco-SVB's Lauren Stephens after Ahumada had dropped away on the hilly first section of lap six.

Both that undulating section of the 13.3km lap and the hot temperatures combined to make it a far tougher race than many riders had perhaps envisaged. The new Race Torquay women's and men's events have replaced the previous years' Race Melbourne, which was held on the Mebourne Formula One course in Albert Park, and are considered 'warm-up' races for the women's and men's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race WorldTour events on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

In temperatures approaching 40°C, the racing was more 'warm' than 'warm up', and once Chapman and Stephens had established what began to look as though it could be the winning breakaway, the chase was on.

No one team ever seemed to have, or want, control of the bunch, and while many were perhaps looking to Amanda Spratt and her Mitchelton-Scott teammates, or sprinter Chloe Hosking and her new Rally squad, Trek-Segafredo's Tayler Wiles decided to try to bridge the gap to Stephens and Chapman on lap seven, and was soon joined by Roxsolt-Attaquer's Emily Herfoss.

The two worked well together, and connected with the leading duo on the final lap. From then on, it was a race of collaboration between the leading quartet to try to hold off the bunch, with what was around a minute's lead quickly plummeting to around half a minute.

Chapman lined the front four out with around two kilometres left to race, and her advantage stretched out, despite the efforts of Stephens to close it. Wiles then chose to set off in pursuit, and, as Stephens continued to try to close the gap, Herfoss jumped away to catch Wiles.

But it was too little, too late, to reach Chapman, who won by four seconds from Herfoss, Wiles and then Stephens, with Hosking bringing the bunch home, 26 seconds behind the winner.

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