PREVIEW | Women's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2023

On the 28th of January 2023 the women's peloton will face it's opening World Tour one-day race of the season in Australia, with the returning Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

The Australian race revolves around the city of Geelong, with deep connections to Cadel Evans. It is a mostly flat race all throughout, before entering the final circuit where the riders will race around on three occasions, and they will have two climbs within it.

The climb to Challambra Crescent is 1.3 kilometers at 7.9%. Not too hard, but enough to split the peloton, drop several riders, and on the final lap attack hard, specially as towards the summit it goes up to 15%. It's a very explosive section that ends with 9 kilometers to go where the riders will be in small groups, but have around two kilometers to reorganize.

Following that there will be a small uphill pitch where some attacks are, again, possible, of around 300 meters at 10%. However from there on the race changes quite significantly and the final 6 kilometers will be much more prone to chasing.

Along big avenues, the riders will have only two corners until they reach the finishing straight. It is as simple of a finale as it could be where a solo rider stands little chances, and having a large group can be very beneficial. This is where the balance between the early attackers and the sprinters will be battled.

Prediction Time

*** Alexandra Manly
** Grace Brown, Georgia Williams
* Amanda Spratt, Clara Copponi, Brodie Chapman

Pick: Georgia Williams