Big cycling win is next target for Spratt

After several years of gradual progression, Australian cycling star Amanda Spratt wants a big international win.

Spratt

Australian cycling star Amanda Spratt is targeting a first big international win. (AAP)

Australian cycling star Amanda Spratt wants this to be the year she goes from very good to great.

There was a tone to Spratt's voice as she spoke on Sunday about her plans for the year, with the focus on the Ardennes Classics in the European spring and then the world road championships later in the year.

After several years of consistent improvement, Spratt is targeting a major international win.

"That's certainly the plan," she said.

"I haven't had that one, huge, stand-out year, but every year I'm getting a little bit better.

"It's a huge, huge challenge, what I've set for myself this year, I realise it.

"But I'm ready to embrace it."

Spratt rode the last two Olympics and she was fifth overall last year at the women's Giro d'Italia

After missing out on the podium earlier this month at the Australian championships, the 30-year-old was outstanding at the women's Tour Down Under in Adelaide.

She successfully defended her title, despite crashing during Sunday's final stage.

Just as Spratt continues to improve, her team Mitchelton-Scott keeps growing in stature.

Spratt credited her teammates with keeping her calm after Sunday's crash.

"We've gone up a level, in terms of the way we're working together on the road and the plans we've been able to execute," she said.

The next step for Mitchelton-Scott is having multiple contenders in the big races.

."It is about getting two of us, three of us, into those final groups and using our numbers to really capitalise," Spratt said.

She said her coach Gene Bates, the Mitchelton-Scott women's team boss, had been a big factor in her ongoing improvement.

Spratt's next race will be the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Rd race at the end of the month before she goes to Europe.


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Source: AAP



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