News for March 21, 2000

The National Time Trial shake up

In racing terms, the past weekend was a significant one in terms of Australian Olympic selection. Although the women were under the spotlight in the Australian national time trial championships, Jamie Drew did his selection chances no harm by winning the category 2.4 Sea Otter Classic in the USA. Drew is one of the most consistent Australian riders in recent years, winning every major domestic race that counts, and now he is starting to make more of a mark overseas. There are five Olympic men's spots up for grabs on the road, and Drew could certainly take one of them come September.

However, the women's compeition is much tighter, being limited to just three per team with a maximum of two being allowed to ride the time trial. The national women's time trial championships held last Saturday were nominated as one of the important selection races for the team. Hence, everyone with any ambitions to ride were out on Beaumaris Rd, Victoria early that morning. Interestingly, the course was almost dead flat - markedly different from that to be used Sydney. A somewhat curious choice for such an important race. However, the wind was blowing a gale and this proved to be a factor in equipment selection as noted Tracey Gaudry's diary entry. She chose a rear disc/front aero combination, whereas the others opted for front spoked wheels to keep control in the wind.

The battle for the lead swapped several times over the course of the event. After one lap, Gaudry was close with Scrymgeour, with Wilson coming through slightly faster. At the halfway point, Gaudry and Wilson were neck and neck, and Wilson edged five seconds of Gaudry at two thirds the distance. However, the last lap was where it counted and Gaudry pulled back the deficit to win by nearly seven seconds.

"This was the result I wanted," said Gaudry in her diary. The pressure was off and she could relax a little. A party until 3:30am the next morning took care of that, although she did front up the next day to race to second place in the national series United Energy road race (Wilson won in a sprint), a tad hung over by her own admission.

Wilson was a little disappointed not to win the time trial, but realised she had snared the number one spot in the Olympic squad which obviously made her happy. She will now fly out to the USA to compete with her Saturn team on the domestic circuit over there for five months.

Despite only finishing third in the national TT, defending champion Kristy Scrymgeour was happy with her performance on Saturday. "I paced it well and couldn't have done it any better, really. It was a bit nerve-racking during the race as I was getting regular time checks and I was always a few seconds slower than Kathy (Watt), but on the last lap I really went for it."

Scrymgeour finished third some 9 seconds faster than Kathy Watt, who'd expressed interest in the second time trial ride in the Olympics.

"The wind suited me because I can get in a good (aerodynamic) position, but with the undulations I felt I couldn't get any real momentum, but having the road closed off was good as we could use the entire road and take the straightest line," said Scrymgeour.

Other points of interest:

Geraldine Denham fell of the starting ramp and was unable to continue, although she did not suffer any serious injuries;

While Tracey Gaudry stayed out til 3.30am partying, Kristy stayed around for the drug test, medal ceremony and then out to the airport to fly to Sydney for a cousin's wedding.

What next? The national squad selection

With the first few hurdles out of the way now for Olympic road selection, the race has basically come down to one position in the women's squad. The key person at the centre of this is national road coach James Victor, who will select the team by June, but wait until after the Olympic road race before deciding the second time trial position. There is a bit of racing to come before then, and while Gaudry and Wilson will spend their time racing in the US, the rest of the Aussies have different plans. Cyclingnews caught up with Victor at the conclusion of the first round of the women's World Cup in Canberra last weekend, and questioned him about the racing program for the team.

"The plan for thre year is to set up in Italy in late March and start preparations for the Olympics in September. We're not really chasing the World Cup races, unlike most of the Euro teams who will be chasing those races for Olympic selection procedures," he said.

"We're already down that path - the AIS squad will be doing the Giro and Tour de L'aude, while Anna and Tracey will be doing the HP Challenge in Idaho, a 12 day stage race. We won't be doing the Grand Boucle - too hard before the Olympics and it just shatters them," he explained. "In 1998 we entered the Grand Boucle before the Commonwealth games and I don't think it was the best preparation. After 8 days of the 12 day race, we could tell that some of the team were going backwards in terms of condition so we pulled them out."

Instead, Victor will have his charges concentrate on the one day races, bearing in mind that the Olympics is of that format, and also that Anna Wilson does not have the physiology of a pure climber. In late August, the team will head back to Australia to put the finishing touches on their preparation for the Olympics.

Now we get down to the nitty gritty - who will be the number three? "After Tracey and Anna, there are no clear stand outs at present," said Victor. We're looking for another rider who does really well in one day races: there's Alison Wright, Sara Carrigan, Hayley Rutherford, Liz Tadich, and Kristy Scrymgeour. As far as Kathy Watt is concerned, the question will be anwered at the time trial next weekend. Winning very important races stands out - you have to win and win clearly."

We now know the result, and it seems that Watt will face an uphill battle to make it into the squad as a support rider given her past history. She does have the advantage though of meeting the first qualification criteria for the 3000 m individual pursuit. Given that Lucy Tyler-Sharman is looking a little unlikely for that event at present, Watt just needs to concentrate her energies on beating Alayna Burns for the one position on the track team come September.

If this scenario occurs, then the third road rider will be chosen from Victor's AIS squad. They will need the qualities of a proven time triallist and a good team rider, as they could well be required to fill the second time trial spot which will be chosen after the road race. This will be a hard choice to make for Victor and the team. On the basis of results to date, the most likely candidates are Juanita Feldhahn, Kristy Scrymgeour, and Liz Tadich, but any one of the others could easily make a claim based on good results throughout the year.

However, for those missing out on the Olympic Games, there is always the World Championships in Plouay, France 10 days later. James Victor will have no rest, leaving the day of the Olympic closing ceremony to return to his team in Europe.

Tyler Sharman update

As reported in cyclingnews.com on March 15, Cycling Australia has decided to reject pursuit cyclist, Lucy Tyler-Sharman's request for clearance to ride for the USA at this year's Olympics. The decision was made official at a CA board meeting earlier today, and Tyler-Sharman will have to seriously consider her actions now if she wishes to compete for any country at the Olympic Games in Sydney.

"Given that we are well into the Olympic year we believe a clearance at this late stage would set a dangerous precendent," said CA president, Ray Godkin. "A lot of time, money and expertise is invested in preparing cyclists to represent Australia. We do not believe we should hand over our investment to another country this close to the Olympics," he said. The US Cycling Federation has been advised of the board's decision.

AIS trackies to Sydney?

The AIS track program which has been based in Adelaide the past years, may possibly be moved to Sydney according to rumours in the Australian press. Although nothing firm has been decided, national coach Charlie Walsh told Channel Ten News that "I think that would be quite traumatic, moving from Adelaide to Sydney. It means that there's a lot of very talented people who would have to move or lose their jobs and I think that would be very sad."

The move may arise because of the presence of Sydney's Olympic velodrome - and a use to put it to. However, this is speculation at the moment, and will be resolved in the next few months. It will not dramatically affect Walsh, who is set to retire after the Olympics, but the other members of the program as he commented.

"I guess it will be the usual politics behind the doors with everybody putting their case or their reasons or whatever else and that's something that I won't be involved in," he said. "We've proven within Adelaide we can do something exceptionally good, best in the world in a number of aspects in terms of the performance of the program."

Anna Wilson's reports

National Time Trial Championships

On Saturday, I competed in the Australian National Time Trial Championships along Beach Road in Melbourne. We had an early start - 7:30am was the first rider off. A bit of a shock to the system!! It was a very windy day but I think the early riders had the worst of the wind - by the time I started at 8:30 it seemed to have settled down a little.

We completed 3 laps of a 9 km circuit. I felt like I got a good start and after completing one lap I was told that I had the fastest split so far, with Tracey Gaudry 2 seconds behind me. I tried to pick up the level of effort a little bit for the second lap gaining another few seconds during that lap - I thought I was going to pull off the win. I mustered everything I had for the final lap. Half a lap later I was distressed to find out that Tracey had pulled me back and we had exactly the same time with 4 and a half kilometres to go. I really had to find something extra to stop her putting more time into me. I gave it everything I had for the last half lap but it wasn't enough. Tracey found just a little bit more than I could and ended up winning by 6 seconds. She certainly came home fast!

In third place was Kristy Scrymgeour, then came Kathy Watt, Juanita Feldhahn, Margaret Hemsley and Sara Carrigan. Although I was disappointed not to pull off the win, my second place was good enough to earn me the number one time trial spot for the Sydney Olympics. So I can head overseas now assured of my place in the Olympic team for both the road race and time trial.

United Energy Road Race

Sunday's race was really good. It was surprising to me how many people turned out to watch and I think they really enjoyed the spectacle. The circuit was very good - and tough. 6 k's around with no real flat patches - just up and down. We had to do 13 laps with 5 sprints during the race for cash. We rode tempo for a lap and then I fired things up with an attack. From then on the race was pretty active until about the halfway mark when Tracey launched an attack up the hill and Juanita and I were the only ones to go with her. We worked together for the next few laps and put a lot of time on the bunch.

Tracey and I had some sprints for the cash and it became obvious that Juanita was suffering a bit. A couple of times after the sprints she had to put in a big chase to catch up again and when Tracey attacked on a short sharp climb, Juanita lost a lot of ground. It took her over a lap to chase us down but eventually she caught us, with only about 3 kms remaining in the race. From there we took it pretty easy, watching each other closely and waiting for the sprint. Juanita started up the sprint, realising that she was lacking a bit in acceleration, so trying to go early to wind it up. That gave me a good lead out and I was able to take out the race from there.