Whitburn wins Shipwreck Classic from break of five

In a similar fashion to the men's race that preceded it, the women's Shipwreck Coast Classic was split in cross winds early on with Victoria's Nicole Whitburn (Pensar SPM) prevailing ahead of her fellow escapees in the women's event on Sunday afternoon.

After positioning herself well in the cross winds that blew the race to pieces, Nicole Whitburn (Pensar SPM) clinched her maiden Subaru NRS victory, edging out Jessica Mundy (Jayco/Apollo/VIS) and Kristy Glover (Holden Women's Cycling).

"This win is fantastic for me," Whitburn said. "The conditions were just horrible, the winds were so strong but luckily it didn't rain until the end of the race."

Whitburn, 35, was part of a small five women breakaway which established after just four kilometres of racing in the 142 kilometre race.

The group of Whitburn, Mundy, Glover, Shannon Malseed (Holden Women's Cycling) and Emily Roper (Suzuki-Bontrager) worked well together despite the extremely gusty conditions.

There was no urgency in the peloton with the gap reaching nine and a half minutes at its biggest, allowing the lead group to maintain their grip on the race.

"I was a little bit surprised when we stayed away, I was just hoping to get to the first sprint but then the time gap just kept going out and out and we kept riding."

The women's NRS concludes in two weeks time with the Tour of the Goldfields in Ballarat. The series honours will go down to the wire with Whitburn's teammate Ruth Corset just two points behind leader Katrin Garfoot (Jayco/Apollo/VIS).