Cameron Meyer and Amanda Spratt claim Australian national road race titles

Cameron Meyer has claimed the Australian men's national road race title, attacking over the final climb to seal a championship win on the 12th time of asking.

The 32-year-old shouted "finally" after crossing the finish line in first before bursting into tears. 56 seconds later Mitchelton-Scott team-mate Lucas Hamilton crossed the line with Marcus Culey (Sapura Cycling) coming in soon after in third place.

Amanda Spratt took her third national title in the women's road race, beating Justine Barrow in a two-up sprint after trying but failing to pull clear in the closing kilometres.

Spratt adds a 2020 win to previous successes in 2012 and 2016. Spratt's team-mate Grace Brown had worked hard to set up the win and was herself rewarded with a bronze medal, finishing eleven seconds down, with the next riders coming across the line more than five minutes later.

"It’s just as special if not more special [the third time around]. I owe my team this one, they rode incredibly well, you saw how much work Grace Brown did in that break," Spratt said after the finish.

After collecting himself, Cameron Meyer said: "It’s been 12 long years. I fell in love with this race so long ago and I’ve been so close so many times.

>>> 27,000 bottles, 12,500 gels and 1,288 tonnes of CO2: The environmental cost of a WorldTour team

"Someone asked me the other day, ‘you’ve got nine world championships why do you want this one so much?’, but my brother has won it, Luke Durbridge one of my best mates has won it, and I just wanted it so badly.

"I want to put that green and gold on and I want to take it to Europe and wear it proudly."

Travis Meyer, two years younger than Cameron, won the road race title in 2010, having ridden for Mitchelton-Scott, then called GreenEDGE, during his career, as well as what is now EF Education First and Drapac Professional Cycling.

Earlier in the week, Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-Scott) defended his national time trial title, sealing his fourth win as he beat Ineos' Rohan Dennis by 18 seconds.

In the women's race against the clock, Sarah Gigante (TIBCO-SVB) prevented a Mitchelton-Scott clean sweep, edging out Grace Brown by nine seconds.