Lucy Kennedy wins Women's Herald Sun Tour

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Mitchelton-Scott's Lucy Kennedy attacked on the last climb of the second and final stage of the 2019 Women's Herald Sun Tour on Thursday to take both the stage win and the overall classification, ahead of her teammate Amanda Spratt and defending champion Brodie Chapman (Tibco-SVB).

Kennedy bridged across to Spratt on the lower slopes of the final Jeeralang climb, and then went it alone, up and over the gravel section at the top of the climb, while Chapman was left to chase alone on the descent, with Spratt stuck to her back wheel.

The Australian crossed the finish line to win the stage by 39 seconds, with Spratt overhauling Chapman for both second on the stage and second overall. With the 10-second win bonus, it meant that Kennedy won the race by 36 seconds from her Mitchelton teammate Spratt, while 2018 winner Chapman took third overall, another nine seconds back.

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"Once I was off the front, there was no way I was going to let anyone catch me," said Kennedy after being presented with her winner's trophy on the podium at the finish in the Victorian town of Churchill.

With everything still together with 30km to go, but with the final climb starting with 15km to go, Mitchelton-Scott took control at the front of the race and quickly split it apart.

"If there's a crosswind leading into a climb, or a bit of an uphill drag leading into it, then we just really want to make it hard for as long as possible and whittle it down to the fewest numbers by the time we reach the climb," Kennedy said of her team's tactics – employed not just on Thursday's stage, but throughout the season.

Once on the climb, first Spratt attacked, and when Chapman chased, Kennedy followed her, and then jumped across to – and past – Spratt before the start of the gravel section.

With Chapman continuing to chase, Spratt latched on to the Tibco rider's wheel, while Kennedy pushed on alone, increasing the gap as she went, all the way to the line.

Spratt and Kennedy have been the two outstanding riders on a powerful Mitchelton-Scott team throughout the Australian summer. While they were unable to prevent Sarah Gigante from winning the national road race championships in early January, Spratt went on to win the Tour Down Under overall for the third year in a row, and Kennedy and Spratt finished second and third at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race four days before the start of the Sun Tour.

"Everyone's so committed on this team, and what goes around, comes around: on some races you work hard for someone else, and on other days you get the opportunity to get everyone working for you. So although you don't feel pressure to pull it off, when everyone's so committed, you just really want to win," said Kennedy.

"We were joint protected riders today. 'Spratty' had seven seconds over me [on the GC], but we knew that there were probably going to be time splits, so it was just about whoever had the best legs on the day.

"It's really special to win at home," she continued. "We're the big Australian team, in Australia, and so to be able to cross the line with my arms in the air felt amazing."

Cyclingnews is proud to introduce the first episode of our Cyclingnews Podcast Women's Edition, brought to you by Sportful, Pinarello and Floyd's of Leadville.

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