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It was an attacking, tactical battle in the final few laps of the race, with Ruby Roseman-Gannon leading from the front for the Liv AlUla Jayco as the representative from the Australian WorldTour team.
Roseman-Gannon was caught twice on the final lap after attacking, the last time just as the riders entered the final kilometre in wet conditions. She had enough energy left to get up for the sprint on the back of a strong leadout from teammate Amber Pate, beating Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) and Alexandra Manly (Liv AlUla Jayco) to the finish to claim her first elite national road race title.
“I’m in shock. The last couple of years I’ve wanted this so bad and every year I finished just a bit disappointed,” said Roseman-Gannon. “I had amazing legs, I mean it helped I was always up the road on the climb, but I can’t thank my team enough, like really, really this is the best group and I’m just in shock. The last time Ballarat, it means a lot, I think it just doesn’t feel real.
“I think everyone was just on another level, we had the team meeting before and everyone was 100% in. we really wanted this, you know we had tears in the meeting about how much it meant to us. It’s an Australian team and it means so much to bring it back to the Europe, so I can't thank the girls enough. I can’t thank the team enough, it feels like a dream, I’ve done a lot of work for this moment.”
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Women's Road Race Highlights
episode • Australian Road National Championships 2024 • cycling • 18m
episode • Australian Road National Championships 2024 • cycling • 18m
How it happened
Courtney Sherwell was the lone leader in the only significant early break of the race, getting a maximum lead of two minutes before the favourites decided to inject some pace into the race with four laps remaining.
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance – Soudal) was the first to attack on the lower slopes of Mt Buninyong, with Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) immediately joining her. The pair were joined by the top of the climb by most of the rest of the pre-race favourites, with the elite group forming at the top.
Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv Jayco AlUla) and Nicole Frain re-joined the front group then attacked over the crest of the climb, getting an advantage as the peloton slowly reformed behind.
They carried a minute’s advantage into the next attempt of the Mt Buninyong ascent, but it was obliterated by the top, as again Gigante, Spratt and Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM) lit up the race and bridged over to leaders.
There was a smaller regrouping over the top, and this time the attacks were largely marked apart from a late sortie by Georgia Baker with 26 kilometres to go that saw the Commonwealth Games gold medallist go into the climb with a small lead.
On that penultimate occasion, it was a more controlled ascent, with Baker caught and no major attempts to break clear. Again, it was the back half of the course that saw an attack go clear, with Baker again initiating, and Roseman-Gannon and Hanson joining. Baker committed for teammate Roseman-Gannon, and they drove out an advantage of 42 seconds with just one lap of the 11.5 kilometre course remaining.
Baker dropped off the front, leaving just Hanson and Roseman-Gannon in the lead as again the top climbers forced the pace from the chasing group. Lidl-Trek committed to chasing the leaders down with a strong chase from reigning champion Brodie Chapman.
Gigante made her move on the steepest section of the climb, jumping across to Roseman-Gannon and Hanson, though none were keen to work and the pace slowed up with Bradbury, Amber Pate (Liv AlUla Jayco), Spratt, and Chapman all joining just after the summit of the climb.
A surge from Roseman-Gannon on the downhill run into Federation University saw her go clear, with Gigante and Spratt scrambling to join her. The three didn’t cooperate well, and after a final Gigante attack was nullified with 2.5 kilometres to go they really slowed up and it ended up being a general regrouping with a kilometre to go in the race.
Liv AlUla Jayco quickly got organised to leadout Roseman-Gannon, with Pate leading the way down the barriers, and Roseman-Gannon jumping clear with 150 metres left to the finish line. She was able to hold off the challenge of Hanson to take the victory, with Alexandra Manly (Liv AlUla Jayco) claiming third.
Neve Bradbury was the only rider in the Under-23 category in the front group and won that title, though she was also very much in the race for the elite title. Haylee Fuller (Team Bridgelane) and Ella Simpson (ARA Skip Capital) rounded out the podium sprinting home from a group 3:38 down on the winner.
