The first repeat win in the history of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race was built on a foundation of teamwork and trust.
A year ago, almost to the day, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race went a bit like this: Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-Suez) came into the race as the favourite. UAE Team ADQ, Liv AlUla Jayco and EF Education-Oatly threw everything at the race, trying to splinter the front group on the ascents of the steep Challambra Crescent to shell the speedy New Zealander. Wollaston dangled off the back, struggled to regain contact, latched back on with the help of an impeccable team, and blasted away her rivals in a reduced bunch sprint to claim the win. This was shortly followed with a buoyant cry of “fuck yeah”, because Ally Wollaston is Ally Wollaston and that is the sort of thing that Ally Wollaston says when she is stoked, which she was.
This year? Well: copy and paste.
All of that doesn’t really do justice to the hours of effort leading up to the outcome – the grit of the chase of the lone breakaway (Petra Stiasny of Human Powered Health alone off the front for 106 km), or to the attrition of the two ascents of Challambra. It doesn’t tell the story of the attacking ride of new World Champ Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly), who forced the split on the second ascent along with Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ). And it doesn’t adequately portray the tenacity of Wollaston’s ride, or the support of her FDJ United-Suez teammates. In the end, Wollaston was dislodged and chased back on twice in the last 10 km, leading to a result that was in its own little way, historic for this race: Wollaston is the first repeat winner Cadel’s Road Race has ever had, across men’s and women’s. Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL) and Mireia Benito (AG Insurance Soudal) rounded out the podium.
But at the end of January, we end up in roughly the same spot. The Kiwi is – as was the case last year – arguably the form rider of the Australian racing bloc, having picked up wins in three out of four of the UCI-ranked races so far this year, and FDJ United-Suez is the form team: after ending the 2025 season as the top women’s WorldTour team, they’re carrying that over into 2026 with another imposing exhibition of teamwork.
So let’s rewind a little – not to last year, but to this morning, before the race got underway, where Wollaston was downplaying her chances. The win, she said, was the ultimate goal, but in cycling – especially on this unpredictable course, especially with the unknowns of early season form – nothing is guaranteed. “You never know what’s going to happen,” she admitted. But even in the pre-race lull, team cohesion was evident: six riders from five nations, committed to a shared cause, whether that cause is as significant as winning the bike race you’ve flown to the other side of the world to win or answering my silly questions about what they did on the very long flight to get there (a mix of movies, sleep, and not much else).
As the team gathered after Wollaston’s win today, celebrating a couple of hundred metres past the line, FDJ-Suez’s WorldTour newbie Lauren Dickson told Escape that Wollaston’s win was built on a foundation of trust. “We all really trust in Ally,” she explained. “We know that she’s got an amazing sprint, and we know that when the time is right she’s going to be there. We’re all fully committed to our plan, and then we have our DS on the radio and he’s backing us as well – he’s letting us know what the situation is, so I think that helps keep us calm.”
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