Amanda Spratt and Rachel Neylan have capped a dream Orica-AIS cycling summer with their quinella at the women's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race.
The women's arm of Orica-GreenEDGE emphatically responded to average domestic results a year ago by running rampant through this month.
It culminated in Spratt and Neylan executing a classic one-two tactical punch at the crucial moment of Saturday's 113km race at Geelong.
Spratt soloed to the win after also winning her second national road title earlier this month.
Neylan outsprinted British star Danielle King (Wiggle High5) 49 seconds later, a year after she won the inaugural edition of the race.
"It was perfect, from kilometre zero," Spratt said of the team's performance.
Team director Gene Bates admitted last summer had spurred them to have a much-stronger start to this year.
"We probably had an average summer ... we took stock and took note of where we went wrong," he said.
"We really tried to make amends for that.
"We've just seen the dividends of all that hard work."
Gracie Elvin started this month by winning the Mitchelton Bay Classic series, followed by Kat Garfoot taking out the time trial and Spratt scoring the road race title at the nationals.
Then, Garfoot also won the Santos Women's Tour in Adelaide.
On Saturday, the lack of strong crosswinds meant Orica-AIS could not execute their initial aim of splitting the race early.
So they reverted to Plan B, with Neylan attacking with 25km left on hillier terrain.
As soon as she was brought back a few kilometres later, Spratt attacked on her own and the race was hers.
King's Australian teammate Chloe Hosking - a revelation this month with her much stronger climbing - tried hard to reel in Spratt.
But the Orica-AIS team captain was too strong at the start of a year where she hopes to make the Olympic road team.
Spratt thought Neylan's initial attack, where she was joined by Hosking, might stay clear.
"(But) I could counter off that and got away," she said.
"It was painful just trying to get over all those final hills and the run into the finish was a headwind.
"But when you have a team like that, you always know you just want to finish it off."
King had mixed emotions about finishing third.
"We knew Orica were going to be firing one off after the other and, unfortunately, we missed Spratty," she said.
"We'd been trying to follow everything and she got a gap.
"Chloe was absolutely incredible - doing everything she could to get her back for me."
Neylan was almost as happy to finish runner-up as she was with last year's breakthrough win, which led to her securing a contract with Orica-AIS.
"It's pretty much a dream start for the team," she said.
"The biggest highlight is just the way everyone has been racing."
The 174km men's race will be held on Sunday, with British sprint ace Mark Cavendish and Australian Simon Gerrans the headline names.
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