Australia’s Spratt likens Kimihurura’s cobbled climb to ‘hell’
Team Australia rider Amanda Spratt has admitted that the conditions on the cobbled climb at Cote de Kimuhurura were difficult "like hell," stating she had to push hard to hold the wheel of her teammate Brodie Chapman to power the team to Mixed Relay Team Time Trial world title in Kigali on Wednesday.
Spratt was part of the Australian team that competed in the team time trial mixed relay event in the UCI Road World Championships which are underway in Kigali.
Other members of the team included Brodie Chapman, Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, Michael Matthews, Lucas Plapp, Jay Vine who already has silver medal in men’s ITT event in the bag.
The six-rider squad completed their ride with a time of 54:30.47, taking the rainbow jerseys by just five seconds ahead of France. Switzerland joined them on podium after finishing 18 seconds behind in third place.
“I knew from the cobbled climb on that it was just going to be like hell. I just had to push through and push through,” Spratt said.
“Brodie was so strong in that last part....Matt White, our director, was screaming at us to sprint, sprint, sprint. We knew it was close, but it’s just so special. It was my first time doing the nation’s team time trial and it’s just incredible to pull it off with the team,” she added.
The three podium teams were among the final grouping of five teams of 15 on the day, including home team Rwanda and Switzerland who kicked off the action.
The latter were the quickest of the 11 teams to that point, with the men’s trio of Jan Christen, Stefan Küng, and Mauro Schmid leading out and the women’s team of Jasmin Liechti, Marlen Reusser, and Noemi Rüegg finished it off before a fast-starting Italy topped the leaderboards early in their run.
Hosts Rwanda finished 11th out of 15 teams, while among the five African teams it was second behind Ethiopia, who came in 10th.
With time trial races done, focus now shifts to road race where athletes will Thursday ride together in groups, with the women's under-23 category competing over a distance of 119.3 kilometers starting at 13:00 p.m.
In this race, which will be held for the first time, Rwanda will have four athletes namely Charlotte Iragena, Jazilla Mwamikazi, Martha Ntakirutimana and Claudette Nyirarukundo.
Ivory Coast, Namibia and Bolivia will be the first to start the race at Kigali Convention Centre which also serves as the finish line for the entire UCI Road World Championships.
