Kirchmann fifth in Women’s WorldTour opener
Sunweb teammate Liane Lippert wins Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
Leah Kirchmann continued her strong start to the season, taking fifth in Saturday’s WorldTour opener at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Like last year, a solo effort claimed the day, as Kirchmann’s German teammate Liane Lippert took her first WorldTour victory in inclement conditions.
This was the first WorldTour season to start with the 121-km Cadel Evans race instead of Strade Bianche in early March. Neither 2019 WorldTour champion Marianne Vos’s CCC team nor Anna van der Breggen’s Boels-Dolmans squad lined up in Geelong.
An early breakaway was corralled before the first intermediate sprint, which Thai national champion Jutatip Maneephan claimed at Barwon Heads. Another escape took off into the rain and crosswinds.
The Race reached the coast and the famous Great Ocean Road – and the sky does not look all too promising… #DeakinWomensRace #UCIWWT
? @velofocus pic.twitter.com/92ga3qCyWa— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) February 1, 2020
Jade Weil (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), the teenage champion of France, surged away from her breakmates to take the first Queen of the Hill prize. Kirchmann’s Sunweb outfit and the 2018 champion Chloe Hosking’s Rally pulled the peloton.
We're inside the last 20km and the bunch is quickly closing in on the breakaway. Will we get fireworks on the Challambra climb? pic.twitter.com/UNWkZhyBv7
— Team Sunweb (@TeamSunweb) February 1, 2020
The Chalambra climb at 10-km to go winnowed the peloton, with Kirchmann and Lippert among the dozen riders to survive. Over the top of the climb Lippert bolted. In a nail biting finish, Lippert held off a high-powered trio of chasers, including 2019 winner Arlenis Sierra.
Lippert can add her triumph to second place overall at the Tour Down Under. Kirchmann claimed the green points jersey at the Tour Down Under while coming sixth.
Five Sunweb riders made up the top 17 in Geelong.
The men’s race, the first one-day race of the 2020 WorldTour, is on Sunday.
2020 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
1) Liane Lippert (German/Sunweb) 3:17:46
2) Arlenis Sierra (Cuba/Astana) +0:15
3) Amanda Spratt (Australia/Mitchelton-Scott) +0:15
5) Leah Kirchmann (Canada/Sunweb) +0:21
