As Amanda Spratt opened the new season in Australia, reflecting on the year and looking ahead to the season ahead, the impending Ardennes Classic once again came into focus.

The 2023 season has been a rocky road for the Lidl Trek team and for the Australian athletes. Spratt said, "I can only describe it as unsatisfactory.

"While the illness did plague Spratt's season, there were high points, and not without signs that he had fully recovered from the problems he faced with iliac artery endomysial fibrosis."

Spratt's 2023 results included eight podiums and a Tour de France top 10 finish in the first three months, but after Elisa Longo Borghini finished the stage fourth in GC, she was suddenly forced to carry the team mantle on the Tourmalet pass.

Prior to that, the Ardennes did not produce the results the 36-year-old Australian and her team had hoped for in 2023, and the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, April 14, should mark the beginning of an important watershed in her season.

"The Ardennes Classic in April will be like the next goal where I really want to be in top form," Spratt told Cycling News at the start of the season in Australia.

Since then, however, the 36-year-old has already been through a month-long race block in Europe, training at altitude in the Sierra Nevada with teammate Gaia Rialini before racing for a second time in the De Brabante Pile. While Elisa Longo Borghini defeated Demi Vollaring (SD Walks Pro Time) for the win, Spratt and most of her teammates finished in a reduced peloton at the back, making the Lidl Trek a huge success.

This is an ideal entry to the Ardennes, with first Shirin van Unrooy likely to be the key card for Sunday's Amstel Gold race, then Léarini, who finished third in La Flèche Wallonne last year, will be integral to the team's plans in the midweek race He should be an integral part of the team's plans for the midweek races. Longo Borghini, winner of the Tour de Flanders and Brabants, missed the Paris-Roubaix Femme to focus on his goals for the undulating classics in late April, but will be looking to Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he finished second last year.

Spratt seems destined for a support role in the race, given the strength of her team options; in 2018, Spratt has finished on the podium in Amstel and Liège, with seven top-10s in three events.

The team may be star-studded, but the team competition is still strong, so while there may be a lot of competition for places, there is good reason to believe that those who are performing could eventually find opportunities for themselves.

"I think I still have room to grow and improve, especially with this new team," Spratt told Cycling News, looking ahead to the 2024 season and beyond.

Spratt, who joined Lidl Trek in 2023, added 'I still want to keep progressing and get to the finals and get some big results for the team and to support them. We have a lot of great riders on our team, but I don't have a strong ego.

"I think that's important. So I want to be there for sure and contribute to the victory and I want to win too."

Spratt's goals extend beyond Lidl Trek to the national team. For a long time, this athlete was one of the most likely to be selected to represent Australia at the World Championships and Olympics, which is not surprising given her podium finishes in the road races in 2018 and 2019. Now, however, that role has been filled by Grace Brown, a strong force in time trials and a promising road race contender.

In other words, with Brown's selection almost assured, only two of the three slots available to Australia in the Paris Olympics road race are actually up for grabs, leaving a number of talented riders in the running. Selection for the Australian team closes at the end of May, so this Ardennes event will be a critical period for the team to qualify for the classic-style Olympic course. Spratt, who has represented Australia in the past three Olympic Games, is not sticking to the quadrennial competition this time around.

"I definitely have my hand in this tournament and would love to be there. But the last couple of Olympics, I've really been into the Olympics."

"I was like, 'It's all about the Olympics, it's all about the Olympics,' and I was just thinking about the Olympics all year long."

This time, however, the combination of a course style that is not a guaranteed option for either climbers or sprinters, stiff competition for a limited number of slots, and the evolution of the sport such that the major goals of the season go far beyond the Olympics, has Spratt He is keen to incorporate.

"I think it's going to come down to good racers who are in good shape and can think on their feet. [If I'm good enough, I'll be on the team and that's great. If I'm not good enough, I won't be selected, and that's fine. I have a lot of other big goals this season."

Spratt points to this as a sign of development in women's cycling, and the less preoccupation with the Olympics, given that the Tour de France Femme and subsequent races are now presented as major goals, and the Olympics are no longer the be-all and end-all he points out that this is certainly a broader situation.

Of course, the Olympics are not the only opportunity to represent Australia this year, and with 2,488m of vertical climbing in the World Championships road race, climbers like Spratt could make the team at the Zurich race in September.

"It's an hour away from where I live, and it looks like a pretty tough course, so I'm definitely paying attention," Spratt said.

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