WOMEN'S. -CYCLING. WORLD- WONDERS : NZ. HONOURS

GEELONG : New Zealand's Ally Wollaston powered home ahead in the Netherland's Karlijn Swinkels in a bunched sprint finish to claim her First World Tour victory in the women's Cadel Evans Road Race on Saturday.

FDJ-Suez's Wollaston, a double medallist at the Paris Olympics, sat at the back of the peltons for much of the race then timed her move perfectly in the final dash to cross the line in 3hrs 59.43 mins.

She came home just ahead of Swinkels [ UAE Team ADQ ] and Switzerland's Noemi Ruegg [ EF Education-Oatley ], who won last month's Tour Down Under which opened the World Tour season.

New Zealander Niamh Fisher's-Black [ Lidl-Trek ] took Queen of the Mountain honours.

''I knew that what I had to do is conserve all day. I was really lucky that my teammates were strong enough to follow all the moves, '' said Wollaston, the reigning omnium track world champion.

'' So proud of the girls [team-mates] that just went all in for me in the final and yeah, just so happy to take the win today.

'' This is actually my first one-day World Tour win, '' added Wollaston, who won team pursuit silver and omnium bronze at last year's Olympics.

'' I'm so proud to win, and I knew the last two weeks I felt super strong, and today I'm just so happy that it all came together.

A field of 82 riders from 14 teams lined up to take on the 142-kilometre [ 88 mile] course, which began and ended in Geelong and took in the southern coastline of Australia's Victoria state.

The World Students Society thanks AFP.