New Zealand's Ally Wollaston powered home ahead of the Netherlands' Karlijn Swinkels in a bunched sprint finish to claim her first World Tour victory in the women's Cadel Evans Road Race on Saturday.

FDJ-Suez's Wollaston, a double-medallist at the Paris Olympics, sat at the back of the peloton for much of the race then timed her move perfectly in the final dash to cross the line in 3hrs 59.43mins.

She came home just ahead of Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) and Switzerland's Noemi Ruegg (EF Education-Oatly), who won last month's Tour Down Under which opened the World Tour season.

New Zealander Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) took Queen of the Mountain honours.

"I knew that what I had to do is conserve all day. I was really lucky that my teammates were strong enough to follow all the moves," said Wollaston, the reigning omnium track world champion.

"So proud of the girls (teammates) that just went all in for me in the final and yeah, just so happy to take the win today.

"This is actually my first one-day World Tour win," added Wollaston, who won team pursuit silver and omnium bronze at last year's Olympics.

"I'm so proud to win, and I knew the last two weeks I felt super strong, and today I'm just so happy that it all came together."

A field of 82 riders from 14 teams lined up to take on the 142 kilometre (88 mile) course, which began and ended in Geelong and took in the southern coastline of Australia's Victoria state.

A series of crashes punctuated the second half of the race, with Australian Alyssa Polites and Dutch rider Daniek Hengeveld among those unable to finish.

While largely flat, there were two late steep ascents of Challambra Crescent, with the second splitting the peloton to a leading pack of 14 which then made a charge for the line.

The one-day Cadel Evans Road Race is named after Australia's four-time Olympic cyclist and 2011 Tour de France winner, with the men's showdown on Sunday.

mp/mtp