WHEN her two early breakaway attempts in Saturday's Bathurst Cycling Classic division one women's criterium didn't bear any fruit Emily Watts decided to bide her time and leave it all in reserve for the sprint home.
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The decision paid off for the Lithgow native and former Bathurst Cycling Club competitor as she beat home Gina Ricardo and Nicole Wilson in a Sydney Uni Velo lockout of the podium.
Watts said the quality of the opposition meant a clean breakaway was always going to be a tough ask, but she wasn't afraid to give it a shot.
"I tried for breakaways at the start of the race but nothing was sticking. Staminade have a really strong team. They were putting girls on the front and closing me down straight away each time," she said.
"I'm doing a bit of track so I've got a bit of a sprint on me. It was around about eight or nine minutes from the finish where I decided that needed to save my legs for the sprint home.
"I told my teammates to make the race hard, because if I'm going to sprint that's what I need the race to be like. That was executed really well by the team."
Jennifer Darmody was the next rider to try and launch an attack after Watts tried her first getaway attempt.
When she was caught an attempt from Georgia Miansarow to get away from the pack was also thwarted by the chasing efforts of Jess Mitchell and Eline Smit.
Watts then had another dig at getting off the front of the field, though it was even less successful than her previous shot.
Ricardo, who finished second behind Watts in Friday's hill climb, emerged as the biggest threat in the sprint for the chequered flag.
The Lithgow rider powered down the outside of the track to see off the threat and extend her overall lead in the Bathurst Tour.
Watts (80) carried a four point lead over Ricardo into Sunday's main event.
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