Risky business but no room for the faint-hearted on open road
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 9, 2010
SOMEONE needs to emulate Carly Light and take a massive risk today in the women's road race at the Australian road cycling championships. Light won Thursday night's criterium with a daring solo break less than halfway through the race.No one denies that Australian women's road cycling remains in transition, following the retirements of stars such as Oenone Wood, Sara Carrigan and Olivia Gollan in the past two years. The overall inexperience of the women's peloton, coupled with forecast sweltering temperatures at Buninyong, near Ballarat, means their 102 kilometre road race is in danger of becoming a pedestrian event.No one wants to see a 10-lap race over the testing Buninyong circuit where the bunch rides at "piano", or slow tempo, for the first seven circuits. The race needs a big early move from a strong rider, such as Bridie O'Donnell, Alexis Rhodes, Vicki Whitelaw or Tiffany Cromwell - or maybe a combination of them. An early break might well detonate in the heat, but it will also make the race.Certainly Rhodes, O'Donnell and Whitelaw have the incentive for a big ride, while Cromwell boasts the potential for something great. Rhodes was furious after suffering two flat tyres early in her ride at Wednesday's national championships time trial, where she was one of the favourites. She was fined $100 for "unseemly behaviour" after throwing her bike and helmet away in disgust. "That's bike racing - I can mope about all I want or I can have a real crack in the road race," Rhodes said.O'Donnell is also keen for a big road race performance after finishing runner-up by four seconds to Amber Halliday in the time trial. Whitelaw, who had shown strong form before the championships, surprisingly finished off the podium.Cromwell was set for a professional contract in Germany, but her team's major sponsor fell through, and so she is now racing with the Australian national squad.Martin Barras took over as Australian women's road coach after the Beijing Olympics, and is pleased with the progress in the past year - but the real work for the London Games starts now. "It's going well - last year Australia started the season ranked eighth in the world, we've moved back to third although it's tenuous," Barras said. "If you look at the gap between third, fourth and fifth and the first two teams, Germany and the Netherlands, it spells out an enormous amount of work."AAP
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