28/09/03 116 kilometres which began with a 50 kilometre flat section followed by 5 hilly circuits and then a flat finish.

There was little action in the early stages until the race reached the climbs.

On the second time up a 3 kilometre hill Australia's Oenone Wood attacked taking Nicole and 6 others with her, but they were soon caught.

However Wood, fellow Australian Olivia Gollan and Nicole attacked again on circuit 4 and were joined by Italians Tatiana Guderzo and Vera Carrara plus Dutch rider Mirjam Melchers.

The group worked well building up a lead of one minute by the end of the final circuit, extending that to 3 minutes over the final flat 20k as only 30 of the 63 starters finished.

Gollan managed to get a gap with around a kilometre to go and held on take the victory from her Australian team mate Wood with Nicole third.

Nicole's team mate Katia Longhin took the sprint for 7th in the main group.

"The weathers changed in Italy, and it wasn't warm today. It also rained on the first time up the hill making the descent tricky."

"I felt good physically, though I think I should have had a longer warm up. It took me a while to get into the race."

"Once we got away the Australians had the upper hand with two in the break. With about 7 km to go they stopped working, and began taking it in turns to attack."

"Eventually it paid off for Olivia. When she got away I wasn't in a position to follow her wheel and nobody else took up the chase."

"In the sprint I thought I was in a good position in 2nd wheel, but Vera Carrara slammed on the breaks at a left hand turn with 450 metres to go."

"Third is a little disappointing, but I know I'm in good shape and now just have to focus on preparing properly for the Worlds."