UCI World Championships - Amanda Spratt predicts tough road race at UCI Championships

The Australian thinks that it will be physical and mental strength needed to emerge victorious in the race, and spoke positively of the task ahead of her.

"I like this course a bit more than last year’s in Innsbruck," Spratt told Cycling News.

"It’s a bit more unpredictable. It’s going to be a race of attrition. You have to be punchy and strong but also smart. I like that style of racing where you have to think a bit and pick a right moment. I like to be aggressive and pick a good moment to attack."

Spratt is the leader of the Australian team which also includes Lauren Kitchen, Sarah Roy, Lucy Kennedy, Tiffany Cromwell, Brodie Chapman, Jessica Allen and Grace Brown. She went to to highlight the Dutch team, with Anna van der Breggan (the defending champion), Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos as their biggest rivals.

"For sure, the Dutch are the ones to beat," she said.

"You look at their line-up and think any one of them could win the world title. It will be interesting. You have to look at them. If you go up the road without a Dutch rider, you have to think, is that the smartest move or not.

"We have a strong Australian team for a course like this, which is exciting. Our riders have a lot of experience. Jess Allen is a our debutant, but she’s proven to be such a strong domestique at my Mitchelton-Scott team. We also have Lucy Kennedy and Brodie Chapman, and then Chloe Hosking is going into it with good form and will be a good card to play, if she can go deep into the final."

The race in Yorkshire will take in Bradford, Masham and Harrogate over the course of 150k, and Spratt compared it to the classics in the Ardennes, explaining: "It’s very similar [to the Ardennes races] and I think we are going to see the same riders who feature there do well in Yorkshire.

"Maybe some of the faster sprinters who can climb, such as Coryn Rivera, can get around this course as well, so it will be a mix of riders, but a hard race."

With such a gruelling race ahead of her and the rest of the contenders, Spratt believes that the tough requirements will whittle down the group to only the toughest in the pack.

"It will 100 per cent be a small group at the end," Spratt confirmed.

"There are a lot of challenges with 2,300 metres of altitude gain, and we don’t see bunch sprints with that amount of metres in the women’s peloton. We have two hard climbs early on and once we get to the circuits I think it’s going to be a smash fest. I don’t think anyone is going to want to take the sprinters to the line among some of the top contenders."