Race Results

Commonwealth Youth Games

November 30^th - December 4^th

Once the racing has taken place, you will be able to Click below to go to see results > 

Road Race

The weather returned to something more like the temperatures expected ion summer on Friday. With a reasonable breeze blowing out on the course, the riders set off for their 3 laps of the Diamond Hill circuit under conditions which were sunny, but not overly hot. 

Things stayed together for the first lap, except for Malaysian Fathah Bt. Mustapa, who slipped out of the back late in the lap. Also late in the lap, two of the Australians tried to go off the front, but were reeled back in very soon afterwards. 

In a display of control and teamwork, the Australian team took the race to the other nations and the others were not able to respond, with the exception, perhaps of New Zealand. As the second lap developed, Amanda Spratt (Aus) and Carissa Wilkes (NZ) broke away  from the bunch. Their move was marked by the remaining Australian Sky-Lee Armstrong and the 'kiwis', Paddy Walker, Lauren Webb and Kathryn Jones.

The escapee pairing of Armstrong and Wilkes stayed away and even extended their lead in the final lap. By the time they reached the finish banner, they had an advantage of  2 minutes 15 seconds. 

The finish area was outside a local primary school, who let their students into the playground adjacent to the road to watch the finish - Bendigo has celebrated these Games with a huge display of community involvement. As Amanda Spratt came into view and sprinted away from Wilkes, there was a deafening chant of "Go Aussie Go".  The noise grew to a crescendo as she crossed the line with time to give a two-handed salute. Wilkes coasted in for silver. This was Spratt's third gold of the games.

Two minutes 15 seconds later, Skye-Lee Armstrong joined Spratt in winning her third medal of the games by winning the sprint for bronze. She, too, finished strongly and had time to acknowledge the screaming crowd of youngsters as she crossed the line.

Speaking to WomensCycling.net at the finish line, Amanda Spratt said that she had an "amazing feeling. I have had a really good week and to top it off like this is absolutely fabulous, I''m really happy."  Asked about team tactics in the road race, she told WomensCycling.net that "We came in with a plan and pretty much, we were able to execute that plan really well. I knew that when I went away, my team-mates were there blocking for me. Plus Skye-Lee got the bronze medal - great."

Results

Click here for photos   (more added Monday 6th Dec)

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