It's now Thursday of Road Nationals, which means it was the day of the Race of Truth. After the intensity and tactical chaos of the criteriums, the focus today was on which riders could control their resources the best, as well as who had the most resources to leave on the road. With a rest day tomorrow where riders can recover and prepare for the road races on Saturday (Men's under-23) and Sunday (Women's combined and Elite Men), today, those brave enough to drain themselves to the point of uncontrollably shaking while still riding (not an exaggeration!) were able to race themselves and the clock.
The new course introduced for 2015 is an out-and-back affair near the township of Buninyong. Where the road race turns left immediately after the start/finish line up the Midland Highway, someone riding straight through that roundabout would have found themselves in the starter's box only a minute or two later. The wind that had toughened up the "crits" last night had subsided to what would have been described as a "breeze," but was still present, and creating a headwind on the road until the turnaround point. Fortunately, the stereotypical Australian January temperatures gave way to a rather more mild day, where I definitely didn't regret taking arm warmers out, even if I didn't need them while riding out on the road!
The under-23 men were the first away, with defending champion Miles Scotson setting a blistering average speed of 47 km/h on the road out to the checkpoint, where unsurprisingly, he held a lead over the rest of the field (the delicate phrasing from Joshua Harrison in the Hot Seats at the time was that Miles' average speed to that point was "pretty impressive!") Claiming that he was taking his pacing strategy - where he started conservatively and roared home on the return leg - from Miles' ride last year was his brother Callum, who overcame the deficit at half-way to claim the green and gold jersey by 20 seconds. Ben O'Connor was third fastest, 1:12 behind Callum.
As the women were warming up after the under-23 presentations, I took the chance to ride the road race course away from eyes to laugh at my lack of form. Once again, I came away feeling that riding the circuit would be far different to racing it - I was able to find a nice rhythm up the Midland Highway, and used all of my gears up Mt Buninyong Road when I felt the gradient. Those racing on Saturday (Under-23 men) and Sunday (combined women and Elite men) won't have that luxury! Neither will they be able to ride gently along the plateau at the top of the climb, nor enjoy an easy freewheeling roll down Fisken Road. The circuit is delightful to ride, but race pace will make it a tough proposition. Unless the wind direction shifts dramatically from the past couple of days, the last few kilometres are too exposed to make an attack worthwhile (at least in my opinion) with the wind coming across the exposed side of the road.
Having done a couple of circuits, I arrived back to the start house just in time to see Bridie O'Donnell and Shara Gillow take the start, which meant that soon I was able to watch all of the women arrive. The under-23 category was incredibly close, with a mere 6.6 seconds separating Ainslie Bakker in fourth from a gold medal. I hope Ainslie doesn't read this, because she might not want to know that 6.6 seconds as a percentage of her total time is 0.23% difference! 2.7 seconds ahead of her (which means that less than four seconds covered the medals) was Jenelle Crooks, who noted on the podium that she had taken the gold medal two years ago by a similar margin. Second was Ellen Skerritt, returning after a 2015 blighted by injury, while the same can be said for the year of Emily Roper, who becomes the first rider to claim gold in the category in the criterium (2013), road race (also 2013) and now the time trial. Personally, I'm pretty pleased with such a podium, because it's nice to see two riders coming back to the top of the sport, while Jenelle has been consistently performing strongly for the past few seasons. The Elite category was dominated by Katrin Garfoot, who romped home in such a time that only Shara Gillow (2nd, +46s) and Tiffany Cromwell (3rd, +1:37) were within two minutes of her time. With the form from the crit of Rachel Neylan, a strong team and now Garfoot's performance, it really feels like the road race is Orica-AIS' to lose. But I said that right up until Sophie Mackay won yesterday too...
The Elite men's race was expected to be won by either Rohan Dennis or Richie Porte, with several riders expected to fight for the final podium position. Rohan Dennis came out on top, sparing the potential blushes of Team BMC, who had already released their incarnation of the National Champion's jersey (and it looks slick!). They definitely had reason to think the jersey would stay within their team, but it would have been a bit embarrassing if neither had won! Third place was the somewhat surprising name of Sean Lake (+1:35) of the Avanti-IsoWhey team. I say surprising with all due respect - he is after all a repeat winner of the Grafton to Inverell classic, the first rider to win back-to-back - because the names that he finished ahead of include previous U23 World Champions Damian Howson (4th, +1:51) and Jack Bobridge (a disappointed 10th at +4:20) amongst a strong field.
So with the time trials done for another year, the Scotson family, BMC, and a bunch of people in Queensland cycling communities will be the happiest with the results. The attention now turns to the more drawn-out tactics of the road races, where strength in numbers gives the advantages to State of Matter/MAAP, Orica-AIS and Orica-Greenedge. But as the races so far have shown, so many other riders are up for the fight, and in previous years riders haven't treated the races as a foregone conclusion, which makes for exciting racing! I'll be watching on either from somewhere roadside with a TV so that I don't miss a second of the action; or on the climb to soak up the atmosphere. That I have such a tough choice is a credit to the event itself, I can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment