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Season Opener: Oceania Championships
The start of the season saw the Sweet As team of Loren Rowney and Trish Palmer heading to the Oceania Championships in Shepparton Victoria with newest member of the team, Maddison Vit (former representative at the Junior Worlds). Maddison had two solid performances in the U19 competition with an 8th in the time trail and 6th in the road race. This shows great promise for the season ahead and she is looking forward to racing as part of the Sweet As team in the NRS for 2011.
The Elite Women’s 5 lap, 116km road race started in unusually good weather (for Victoria )
The early break by National Time Trial Champion Shara Gillow and Peta Mullens was brought back by the start of lap three. This created a launch pad for Sweet As rider Loren Rowney to initiate a counter attack. Loren got a minute on the bunch quite quickly, whist Trish Palmer controlled numerous attempts by the bunch to bring her back. Unfortunately the AIS/Jayco Australian team proved to be too strong and caught Loren eventually. After the feed zone (where our fantastic swannie Wayne did a top job of feeding ) the race got tougher, many riders being dropped, but Trish and Loren were equal to the task and worked in this elite lead group. This group comprised mainly of full time athletes and/or pro’s, so the tempo was ferocious!
At the start of the final lap, National Road Champion Alexis Rhodes of the AIS made multiple unsuccessful attempts to get away. Australian representative Shara Gillow then countered and broke clear of the bunch. She was joined by Chloe McConville as she bridged the gap, and they formed a solid break. The AIS/Jayco team controlled the chasing bunch to the finish, resulting in Shara holding on for the win in front of a fast finishing bunch.
The Bundy girls had great finishes in this first bunch, a great result for the first hit out of the season. The Oceania’s were the perfect team setting race for the upcoming NRS.
The whole team are now looking forward to Tasmania’s Mersey Valley in April for the first round of the National Road Series.
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