A new star has emerged from Team FDJ-Suez and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race after Loes Adegeest claimed the honours in the 2023 Deakin University Elite Women’s Road Race.
An E-Sports world champion, Adegeest’s jump from Zwift to the roads has paid dividends with the newly-signed FDJ-Suez rider claiming her first UCI WorldTour win on the circuit.
Adegeest edged out Australia’s Amanda Spratt (Trek-Segafredo) in a thrilling two-rider sprint to collect her first WorldTour win and the seventh edition of the women’s elite race on Saturday.
Riding for her FDJ-Suez teammate Grace Brown, Adgeest took control of the race as her teammate faded.
The deciding attack didn’t come until the final of two Challambra climbs on the 140.8 km circuit when the pair broke away. Adegeest never showed her hand in the closing kilometres, with Spratt doing most of the work in the run in to ensure they stayed away from the chase group.
Spratt didn’t have the legs to contest for the win and Adegeest capitalised, sprinting away to edge out her opponent in the last 200m to take the victory.
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“I felt I could follow Spratt and I was actually the only one that could really follow Spratt… I knew after the first climb it could be my day,” Adegeest said.
“I had thought the sprint through, and I knew there were headwinds so I had to start late… late, but not too late! I knew I had to come from the wheel, so I forced Spratt to the front and the gap for big enough to play poker a little bit. I tried that and it worked out.”
The 26-year-old’s impressive performances on the Challambra ascents also netted her the Visit Victoria Queen of the Mountain jersey.
“It has to sink in still a bit. It’s really good to start a season like this. To finish like this – it’s amazing,” she added.
Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health) finished third, four seconds behind the leading pair, to round out the podium.
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Spratt was awarded the pink jersey, becoming the WorldTour leader at the concluding race of the summer of cycling in Australia.
Georgia Howe (Team Jayco AlUla) was the pick of the sprinters while Josie Nelson (Team Coop-Hitech Products) won the Gerry Ryan Award Young Rider Classification.