Consecutive overall Santos Women's Tour wins for Spratt

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Australian Chloe Hosking (Ale Cipollini) unleashed her powerful sprint to claim victory in front of a huge crowd on the final stage of the 2018 Santos Women’s Tour. Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton Scott) made it back-to-back overall victories after surviving a mid-race crash to cross the line safely.

"It is always nice to get the first win ticked off and then hopefully they just come rolling in like a snowball," Hosking said immediately after the race.

"I’m really glad I could get the win in one of the stages of the tour. I came in knowing I had unreal form and it was disappointing on the first stage I knew I wasn’t slower than any of the girls it was just the positioning that let me down.

"So then to come out again today in what is arguably an easier race and win it shows I am just as fast."

Alongside the majority of her team, Hosking was involved in a big crash mid-race, and while not impacting her during the race, she was feeling the impact after.

"I don’t feel okay, no. I’m starting to feel everything now. My back is super sore and a cork in my leg.

"I went down hard. I think I flipped. I hope someone got it on video as it would have been spectacular," a smiling Hosking added.

For Spratt it was back-to-back victories following an impressive display in a race she had placed as her early season target.

"I'm really, really happy - I'm so proud of the team this week," said a delighted Spratt. "We've gone up a level, in terms of the way we're working together."

"Certainly this is something I was targeting and I'm really happy to pull it off for the team."

Admittedly shaken by the crash Spratt’s teammates including the coolheaded Annamiek Van Vleuten didn’t allow her to panic.

"It was quite stressful out there. It wasn't ideal, but the team didn't panic - I think I panicked more than anyone else," Spratt said of the crash.

"[Jessica Allen, and [Annemiek] van Vleuten stopped. She was trying to calm me down, everyone around me was really calm, so that helped," Spratt explained. "I'm sore, I have some skin off, but I'm alright."

After two rainy days the peloton was treated to a traditional Adelaide summer with the sun shining down on the field for the late afternoon criterium.

Carlee Taylor (Holden Team Gusto Racing) was the first to attack in her farewell race with the for Adelaide local leading the race in the opening laps.

The fight for the green jersey was on from the gun with Katrin Garfoot (UniSA Australia) grabbing five points at the first intermediate sprint after four laps drawing her level with Spratt.

Ahead of The second sprint, as teams were fighting for position a crash spiralled across the road with more than 20 riders going down, including Spratt. A neutral lap for riders impacted by the crash allowed the race to regroup at the half way point. The next two sprints were a repeat of the first two with Garfoot taking both.

In the final laps the teams of TIS Racing Team, Ale Cipollini, Mitchelton Scott and Team Tibco - Silicon Valley Bank were present at the front looking to set up their sprinters. It was the yellow jerseys of Ale Cipollini who had the prime position dropping Hosking off as she jumped on the wheel of Van Vleuten before starting her charge to the final.

Grace Anderson gave the Vantage New Zealand National Team something to take home as she sealed the young rider classification. Spratt took the mountains, Garfoot the sprints and Mitchelton Scott the team classification.

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