Wells starts "Around Canberra they are known as The Brains Trust. OK, there is not much competition in town, but the national women's road cycling squad do stand out. The national coach, Andrew Logan, is a qualified teacher and was also road-sneaky enough to win the 1986 Commonwealth Bank Cycle Classic, from an international field, by a couple of seconds."
"But his head hurts when he tries to summarise the combined intelligence of his riders and the complexity of picking three of them, next month, for Atlanta Olympic Games berths. For a start there is the selection formula: 50 per cent on form (including this week's three-day White Pages tour around Canberra and 30 more days of racing), 15 per cent on past performances, 15 per cent on physiological tests, 15 per cent on phychological profiles, and five percent on scope for improvement."
"The national squad was only started in 1992and already Logan is seeing a trend of clever, educated women coming into the sport in their twenties. Road racing requires great stamina, but the rider who keeps a clear chess player's head and makes quick, incisive decisions has the advantage. It is also a sport in which personal glory must often be sacrificed for teammates. If, in the 108 km Olympic road race, any of Australia's three riders gets into a decisive breakaway the others will be expected to help protect her - blocking and chasing down rivals in the main bunch."
Logan says that "there is no room for selfishness. It takes three riders to win a medal, even though only one may get to the dais." Wells comments that "Even in the selection races these riders must combine teamwork with individual initiative. And two of them must show the strength to ride the 26 km ITT as well as the road race in Atlanta."
Wells considers the form guide for the women and says "at least Australia has a 'head' start.
"She has a science degree and Logan attributes much of her success to her tactical brilliance and the thoroughness of her preparation. She won that gold in Barcelona by bridging the gap between the main bunch and a small breakaway group, then attacking again and slipping away alone to a winning lead."
Logan notes that "Most riders would have eased up when they caught the break. But Kathy's move caused her main rivals to hesitate fatally, and give her too much of a lead."
Wells says that "Meanwhile, Kathy has video taped the Olympic course so that she knows every metre of it. And she showed with a third in the time trial at last year's world championships that she is on track for another medal."
"She only started racing in 1994 after starting the fun ride, The Great Victorian Bike Ride. Her chief sporting interest before that had been water polo. Last July, when with the national squad, she broke her pelvis in five places in a fall in Switzerland. She showed her grit by getting back on an exercise bike and pedalling with one leg, and by September was back on the road."
"She is the national criterium champion and Logan says she is the best sprinter in the squad. Also, she is quick to sum up the opposition and coolly analyse her own performance."
She "became the Australian time trial champion after joining the national squad last year. And she has survived an even greater test of courage. In November 1989s he was only a few weeks from dying when diagnosed as having acute lymphatic cancer."
Watson says "Surviving that, with chemotherapy, and spinal injections, and bone marrow transplants, was a mental thing. I learned what you can do when you want something badly enough - like living."
"Tracey got hooked on cycling after joining the Great Queensland Bike Ride when on holiday after her recovery. She is under no illusions about the selection process." She said "there are already mind games going on"
Wells concludes by saying that "it is said of Andrew Logan that, at age 34, he has a fine mind and an excellent cycling brain. He also has less hair by the week and a continuing headache - as befits any mild mannered mere male who must juggle the needs and cater to the ambitions of a groups of super fit, super-smart, aggressive female athletes of the mid-1990s."