Australian veteran Amanda Spratt has announced that she will retire from professional cycling at the conclusion of the 2026 season, drawing the curtain on a career that has spanned more than 15 years at the highest level of the sport.
The 38-year-old is set to enter her fourth season with Lidl-Trek, having previously spent more than a decade racing within the BikeExchange programme between 2012 and 2022. Over that period, Spratt established herself as one of the most consistent stage race riders and climbers of her generation, respected across the peloton for her reliability, professionalism, and longevity.
Spratt’s palmarès reflects a career built on sustained excellence rather than headline-grabbing dominance. She claimed three Australian national road race titles in 2012, 2016, and 2020, and enjoyed a remarkable run at the Women’s Tour Down Under, where she won the general classification three times in succession from 2017 to 2019. Her finest individual season came in 2018, when she won the overall at Emakumeen Bira, claimed a mountain stage at the Giro Rosa en route to third overall, and finished the year with a silver medal in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck.
That consistency translated into regular podium finishes and top-five results across the biggest races on the calendar. Spratt stood on the podium at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and multiple editions of the Giro d’Italia, where she finished third overall twice. While she was never a prolific winner, she was a constant presence in the decisive moments of the sport’s most demanding races.
In recent seasons, Spratt has continued to play a key role within Lidl-Trek, combining leadership with support for younger riders. Her career also includes Olympic appearances for Australia at London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2021, and a late-career highlight came in 2025 when she was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning Mixed Relay Team Time Trial at the Road World Championships in Rwanda.
Announcing her decision, Spratt made clear that retirement is not driven by a loss of motivation. “I am still motivated and still training hard ahead of the 2026 season,” she said. “I don’t want my career to just fizzle. I want to keep putting the effort in and go out on a good note.”
Rather than stepping away abruptly, Spratt has chosen to mark her final year in advance, allowing her to share the season with those who have supported her throughout her career. “I like the idea of being able to finish on my own terms and being able to choose where my finish line is,” she explained. “Announcing it now makes it more special to experience that final season with people who’ve been part of the journey.”
Lidl-Trek paid tribute to Spratt’s influence within the women’s peloton, describing her as a cornerstone of Australian success on the international stage and one of the most dependable general classification riders of the Women’s WorldTour era. Her reputation as a rider teams could always rely on in the hardest races has been a defining feature of her career.
Spratt is expected to begin her final season at the Women’s Tour Down Under, a race closely intertwined with her legacy, though her full 2026 programme has yet to be confirmed. While she has spoken openly about the desire to add another win before stepping away, her priorities remain firmly rooted in contributing to team success and finishing her career in a way that reflects how she has raced throughout it: committed, selfless, and competitive to the end.
When Spratt eventually leaves the peloton, she will do so as one of the defining figures of modern Australian women’s road cycling, having helped shape an era through consistency, leadership, and longevity rather than spectacle alone.
