Oceania champion Katelyn Nicholson (Butterfields ZipTrak) claimed a solo victory in a windy edition of the Lochard Energy Warrnambool Women’s Classic on Sunday after riding off the front alone for the final forty kilometres of the race.
It was a fast tail and cross wind driven edition of the 156 kilometre race from Colac to Warrnambool that Nicholson took just 3 hours, 51 minutes and 37 seconds to complete, delivering an average speed of 40.33km and slicing more than ten minutes off last year’s winning time.
There was not another rider in sight when Nicholson crossed the line but she never truly let herself believe it might all be sewn up until she hit the finishing straight.
The first group in the race, that was this year also delivering the second round of competition in the new ProVelo Super League, came across the Raglan Parade finish line just over three minutes back from Nicholson. Keely Bennett (Duda) led the charge to take fourth with overall and under 23 series leader Talia Appleton come across the line in fifth and, as a result, maintained the top spot overall with a tally of 217 points, just 1 point ahead of Nicholson.
