Australia's Amanda Spratt won the bronze medal in the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire on Saturday, behind Dutch riders Annemiek van Grooten and Anna van der Breggen. Spratt had her sights set on bringing her home country its first world title in the women's road race, but she will now look to next year's more mountainous course as a chance to win the rainbow jersey.

"I wanted to come here and win, but nobody could beat Anne-Mike today," Spratt said. 'Sometimes you have to realize when somebody has an exceptional performance and I don't think I could have changed the outcome to become world champion today. My career is not over yet and I am still looking for more. I think next year's course will be exciting. I'm going to move forward and see what I can improve on.

Earlier this week, the UCI announced details of next year's road world championships in the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Valais. It will be 4 km long, with an average gradient of 10.2% and a maximum gradient of 14.5% at the halfway point, with an elevation of 478 meters and a maximum of 909 meters. The climb will be featured at the midpoint of each 20km finish circuit, where the elite women will run three times for a total of 123km.

In Yorkshire, the women will run 150 km on a technical and challenging course that heads north from Bradford and then south towards the three undulating finishing circuits in Harrogate. Van Vleuten attacked on the second climb at the 45km mark and rode solo for over 100km to win.

"I wasn't surprised by the attack," Spratt said. 'She's in great shape and eager to use those legs. The Dutch team's luxury is their strength. They were able to send out Annemiek and they had Anna who could sit back. It was a perfect scenario for them. I don't know how committed the players behind her were. She was on another level today."

Spratt was joined by defending champion Van Der Breggen, England's Lizzie Daignan, Chloe Dygert Owen (USA), Elisa Longo Borghini and Soraya Paladin (both Italy), Denmark's They were part of a chasing group that included Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Clara Koppenberg (Germany). Van der Breggen won the silver medal in the closing circuit, while Spratt took the bronze.

"We started out well, but as the circuit got closer, we started looking at each other and attacking," Spratt said. I decided to stay out of the attack and follow along to conserve my energy." There are only so many bullets you can fire on a circuit like this, and we had to be careful how we used them."

"It was a hard and brutal race. I had cramps all over the place and even my thumb cramped up at the end. Everyone finished empty, the race started after 45km, which is something you don't usually see in a 100km full gas race. It was a tough race

"I finished empty. I'm happy with this bronze medal and thankful to the team for their support.