Megan Armitage impresses in 160km Australian classic | Sticky Bottle

*Ireland's Megan Armitage on the breakaway and leading Australia National Road Series leader, and eventual race winner, Maeve Plouffe in the breakaway (Photo: Richard Scriven)*

Megan Armitage has continued her racing and training stint in Australia with a very strong result in the 160km Lochard Energy Women’s Warrnambool Classic. The event for elite women was the latest round of Australian's National Road Series and featured a whole host of top riders.

Armitage finished the race just off the podium, taking 4th place, after making the winning breakaway of seven and then going on a brave bid for victory with an attack from that group as the finish approached.

While she got a gap - see video highlights below - the other women then responded and hunted her down. And after other late attacks were also neutralised the finish came down to a sprint from the remaining six riders up front, with Armitage placing 4th.

Irish track Olympian Shannon McCurley was also in the event and took the intermediate sprint. At the finish she brought home the remains of the bunch on the day. She won the sprint for 8th place, at the head of a near 30-rider peloton, which finished 4:53 down on the breakaway.

Armitage (25) is racing as an independent rider in Australia at present; in the colours of her UCI-ranked trade team IBCT, formerly Team Rupelcleaning, though she has no team mates with her. Aside from what was a very strong performance on Sunday, she also won the Hawthorn Criterium in January and rode very aggressively in the Tour Down Under; getting in the breakaways and claiming some 'most aggressive rider' stage awards.

Yesterday's race was perhaps the most challenging she has done and was the first standalone women's race at Warrnambool Classic; the distance - at 160km - and the fact there were climbs and stretches of gravel all combining to pose a very testing challenge for the riders.

While the race was a very long battle, there was plenty of aggression from the start with attacks splintering the peloton several times and a group of about 30 riders emerging intact after those early exchanges.

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains — *Megan Armitage, in red kit, at back of breakaway as it approaches the finish in Australia on Sunday*

Video - Ireland's Meehan climbs with best on brutal Alpine terrain — *Megan Armitage, in red kit, at back of breakaway as it approaches the finish in Australia on Sunday*

However, it wasn’t until the riders had over 100km in their legs that the key moves began to take shape; Armitage among the cream rising to the top during that decisive phase of the race.

With about 50km remaining the seven breakaway riders
formed off the front. Armitage was the sole non-Australian and only independent
rider in that move. She was joined by ARA Pro
racing Sunshine Coast’s Maeve Plouffe and Anya Louw.

As Plouffe, a 22-year-old
former junior and U23 international, held the leader’s jersey in the national
series, her team mate Louw was working for her in the breakaway.

Also in the group was Matilda
Raynolds (InForm TMX Make), who won the last two edition’s of the race when the
women’s event was part of the men’s race. Josie Talbot (Sydney
Uni-Staminade) was also in the breakaway as well as Australian road champion
Nicole Frain (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) and recent Tour of Gippsland winner Georgie
Howe (Knights of Suburbia).

Louw was distanced from the breakaway with about 10km to
go and Australian champion Frain faded in the sprint to finish 6^th
at four seconds.

Plouffe proved fastest in the dash to the line to take
victory from Talbot and Raynolds, with Armitage 4^th and 5^th;
the top five all finishing on the same time after 4¼ hours of racing.