{"id":392338,"date":"2026-01-05T03:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392338\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T03:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:39:14","slug":"amanda-spratt-to-retire-at-the-end-of-the-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392338\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Spratt to retire at the end of the 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian veteran Amanda Spratt has announced that she will retire from professional cycling at the conclusion of the 2026 season<\/a>, drawing the curtain on a career that has spanned more than 15 years at the highest level of the sport.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old is set to enter her fourth season with Lidl-Trek, having previously spent more than a decade racing within the BikeExchange programme between 2012 and 2022. Over that period, Spratt established herself as one of the most consistent stage race riders and climbers of her generation, respected across the peloton for her reliability, professionalism, and longevity.<\/p>\n

Spratt\u2019s palmar\u00e8s reflects a career built on sustained excellence rather than headline-grabbing dominance. She claimed three Australian national road race titles in 2012, 2016, and 2020, and enjoyed a remarkable run at the Women\u2019s Tour Down Under, where she won the general classification three times in succession from 2017 to 2019. Her finest individual season came in 2018, when she won the overall at Emakumeen Bira, claimed a mountain stage at the Giro Rosa en route to third overall, and finished the year with a silver medal in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck.<\/p>\n

\"AmandaAmanda Spratt<\/p>\n

That consistency translated into regular podium finishes and top-five results across the biggest races on the calendar. Spratt stood on the podium at Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and multiple editions of the Giro d\u2019Italia, where she finished third overall twice. While she was never a prolific winner, she was a constant presence in the decisive moments of the sport\u2019s most demanding races.<\/p>\n

In recent seasons, Spratt has continued to play a key role within Lidl-Trek, combining leadership with support for younger riders. Her career also includes Olympic appearances for Australia at London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2021, and a late-career highlight came in 2025 when she was part of Australia\u2019s gold medal-winning Mixed Relay Team Time Trial at the Road World Championships in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Announcing her decision, Spratt made clear that retirement is not driven by a loss of motivation. \u201cI am still motivated and still training hard ahead of the 2026 season,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want my career to just fizzle. I want to keep putting the effort in and go out on a good note.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Amanda<\/p>\n

Rather than stepping away abruptly, Spratt has chosen to mark her final year in advance, allowing her to share the season with those who have supported her throughout her career. \u201cI like the idea of being able to finish on my own terms and being able to choose where my finish line is,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnnouncing it now makes it more special to experience that final season with people who\u2019ve been part of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lidl-Trek paid tribute to Spratt\u2019s influence within the women\u2019s peloton, describing her as a cornerstone of Australian success on the international stage and one of the most dependable general classification riders of the Women\u2019s WorldTour era. Her reputation as a rider teams could always rely on in the hardest races has been a defining feature of her career.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Spratt is expected to begin her final season at the Women\u2019s Tour Down Under, a race closely intertwined with her legacy, though her full 2026 programme has yet to be confirmed. While she has spoken openly about the desire to add another win before stepping away, her priorities remain firmly rooted in contributing to team success and finishing her career in a way that reflects how she has raced throughout it: committed, selfless, and competitive to the end.<\/p>\n

When Spratt eventually leaves the peloton, she will do so as one of the defining figures of modern Australian women\u2019s road cycling, having helped shape an era through consistency, leadership, and longevity rather than spectacle alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian veteran Amanda Spratt has announced that she will retire from professional cycling at the conclusion of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85,209951,23293],"class_list":["post-392338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-spratt","tag-womens-cycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}