A Junior World Championship, multiple Australian championships and countless other major race victories are just some of the results on the growing Palmarès of Amanda Spratt. The pocket rocket from Springwood in NSW is another of Australia’s up and coming female riders. Read about Amanda’s story in another of Cyclingresults.net’s Live Interviews.
CR: Hi Amanda, how has your season been for you?
AS: Overall I am happy with the season. I made some big improvements, especially in the second half of the year. It was a bit of an up and down year but I think I learnt more about myself this year than I have any other year.
I came back to Australia in the middle of the year then went to the altitude camp for two weeks in July and came off that block of training with some really good form.
Unfortunately for me I injured my knee in Albstadt Tour in Germany in August which ended my season a month early. I’m still a few weeks away from full recovery but am happy with the progress being made now.
CR: You’ve spent a lot of your year in Italy, racing for the AIS women’s team; how is the set up at the AIS in Varese?
AS: I think we are really lucky that Australian cycling has such a good set-up in Europe. The base in Varese is so good in terms of services and training available. It’s a 30kms ride away from the Swiss alps or Lake Maggiore so there are some really beautiful rides- certainly in terms of training it is an ideal location.
The house is home to staff, the SA-AIS.com riders, the mountain bikers and the women so there are always people around. To have physios, mechanics, coaching staff and massage so readily available is ideal in making sure we can get through the season in the best shape both on and off the bike.
CR: This year has been a solid year for you, what were your best results?
AS: Thuringen- Rundfahrt was definitely the highlight of my season. This is a 6 day category 1 tour which is one of the hardest tours of the year.
It took me a couple of days to find my legs but the last two days were really good days. I came 12th in the TT then finished front bunch in the final two road stages.
CR: You recently had a training camp at Altitude at the top of the Stelvio, can you tell the readers about this camp?
AS: There was a 3 week altitude camp in the first three weeks of July at Stelvio which is at 2800m. The AIS sports scientists were conducting a study to basically see the effects of living at this altitude on our physiology, training and performance. Stelvio is between the Swiss, Austrian and Italian borders, and whilst it was 40 degrees in other parts of Italy at the time, we were treated to a few snowstorms.
This resulted in a few snowball fights, and as you can imagine with a group of competitive cyclists they were taken extremely seriously. We also got to build our first snowman!
The only place to ride from where we were staying was down…wearing every piece of cycling clothing we owned, 25kms, 48 hairpins later we arrived at one of the towns down the bottom. Stop, take off the majority of what we are wearing, put it in the car following, and start out for a ride in sunny weather.
So all that meant that the end of every ride involved a serious trek uphill. There were three different ways to get back up to Stelvio. The climbs were 18kms, 22kms and 26kms in length. Every single hairpin is numbered from bottom to top so it’s like a big countdown to 0…was a good test for the mental side of things.
CR: Was it very beneficial?
AS: Yeah I definitely felt that it was beneficial for me. The training alone was fantastic and added with the altitude I certainly felt good in the next block of racing. There was also a lot of focus on working on flexibility and core during the camp so that paid dividends as well.
CR: How is the ‘Euro lifestyle’? It is definitely a dream for many.
AS: It was always a dream of mine when I was a junior to race in Europe and I certainly feel very privileged now to have the opportunity to travel to Europe and do what I love… and the Italian coffee and pizza are definitely worth it!
It’s been very interesting to travel to different countries and to train and race over different terrain and surfaces. Cobbles are certainly a whole other ball game! There has also been the chance to experience different food specialties (there was a certain bad experience with Cannibal toast in Belgium that turned out to be raw minced meat on bread!).
Lost in translation apparently.
Whilst we are back at the base in Varese there is a fair bit of spare time so I have also been doing a business degree at uni by distance ed. to keep the brain ticking over!
CR: How do you rate the current level of women’s cycling in Australia?
AS: I think there is great depth in Australian women’s cycling right now. 5 years ago there were not many Australian riders with pro teams but now there are Aussies spread across several teams. The fact that there was also the opportunity to send a second Australian team to France this year who performed extremely well indicates the depth at the moment.
While there is depth it would still be good to see almost as many females as males coming through… one day!
CR: We have recently interviewed Josie Tomic and Michaela Anderson, two rising stars in women’s cycling, do you know of any other up and coming women cyclists?
AS: There are definitely some very talented riders coming up. Jos has been very impressive to say the least! Western Australia have got some very good riders coming through like Michaela and Sarah Kent.
It’s hard to name individuals because I think overall there is great strength in the juniors at the moment. As a NSW rider though I am allowed to be a little biased and say that Megan Dunn, Lauren Kitchen and Ashlee Ankudinoff are riders to watch in the future!
CR: Your family is also involved in cycling, your brother Nick was a talented junior rider. Has this involvement helped your cycling?
AS: Yes definitely. My brother Nick and my Dad have always ridden as well. Nick and I did BMX racing for 5 years then came across to road and track when he was 10 and I was 12. I have always been able to train with him and we used to practice racing tactics against each other a lot. A year ago he was diagnosed with both glandular fever and Ross river fever so hasn’t been on the bike much since then!
With my Mum being a psychologist, that has definitely helped with the mental side involved with cycling.
CR: You won the junior world points score championship in LA as a first year junior, do you have any plans to race the track in the future?
AS: Yes I can’t see myself giving up track altogether anytime soon. I enjoy it too much and whilst I think my real future lies with the road, I still have goals on the track that I would like to achieve.
CR: Best of luck with your upcoming summer season in Australia.
AS: Thankyou
CR: Amanda Spratt, thanks for having a Cyclingresults.net Live Interview
AS: Thanks, keep up the good work with the website!
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