Australian Open Road Cycling Championships

Thursday, 10 January 2002   Women’s Time Trial – 28km

Conditions: 35ºC really hot, northerly winds

In the blistering heat, 32 girls arrived at Buninyong to attempt the race of truth.  All states were represented, with the exception of the NT, with both VIC and NSW prominently represented.

Each rider started from the top of the time trial ramp, and set off at 2min intervals.  The course was a 28km loop that started and finished on Warrenhiep street, in the small town of Buninyong, 10km from Ballarat.

The time trial course was really hilly and technical.  After the first 200m along the main street, we did a left turn and faced a 3km category 3 hill.  This hill was a steady drag with no relief on the legs.  I tried to hold 25km/h but was soon trying desperately to keep it above 20km/h.

At the top of the climb, the course turned sharply left onto a narrow, rough, dead road.  This section needed a lot of concentration to stay on the aero bars, as the road was so rough.  The course headed along this undulating road for about 6km.  After a sharp right corner followed almost immediately by a left turn, the next section was a gradual uphill for 8km into a block headwind.

At the 17km mark, the course turned hard left for (you guessed it) another 5km gradual climb.  The legs were now feeling the effects of the dead roads and climbing.  At the 23km mark, the course finally had a steep downhill section and although the road was still rough with the occasional pothole, I managed to keep the speed over 70km/h on the descent.  Soon after the descent, the course turned sharply left towards the finish.  The final few km’s were mostly downhill which was a relief on the legs.

The results: the Australian Time Trial Champion for 2002 was Sara Carrigan (QLD) who rode in an impressive time of 41mins 19sec.  Anna Millward (VIC) took 2^nd place in 41min 55sec while Hayley Rutherford (WA) was 3^rd.

Katie Mactier, a fellow Carnegie CC member, rode well to finish in the top 10.  My legs felt heavy and unresponsive today, with my time about 3mins down on what I was expecting to do.  However, the road race awaits so there is no time to dwell over why things didn’t go so well today.

A cool change is expected to blow in for the road race, which will be a welcome relief to the 35ºC day we experienced for the time trial.  It is another hilly course for the road race, so let’s see what happens on Saturday.