Teenager in shock at dream win

TEENAGER Sarah Gigante has confirmed she is a shooting star in Australian cycling with her shock win at the national road championships.

The 18-year-old upstaged some of the sport’s biggest names to take out the 104km event at Ballarat.

World championships silver medallist Amanda Spratt tried in vain to chase Gigante down on the last of nine laps and won the silver medal.

Spratt’s Mitchelton-Scott teammate passed Shara Gillow on the line for third.

“To get in the breakaway with my idols, and I dropped them, I can’t believe it – I just can’t believe it,” an emotional Gigante said at the finish.

“This is more than a dream – I wouldn’t even dream this big.”

Gigante is a star off the bike as well – late last year, she achieved a perfect ATAR score of 99.95 in her VCE results.

Gigante was in a lead group of seven that went clear in the first lap on the hilly Mt Buninyong circuit.

With less than two laps left, she led with Gillow and Roy and then went on a solo attack.

When it became clear that Roy was in trouble, Spratt attacked from the chase group and tried to bridge the gap to Gigante.

Spratt finished 50 seconds behind, while Roy managed to catch Gillow metres from the line and take the bronze medal.

It is the second straight year that the powerful MitcheltonScott team has been unable to win the road race title.