Champion Auckland professional Georgia Williams will be chasing a place in history when she defends both road and time trial titles at the Grassroots Trust Elite Road National Championships in Cambridge this week.
The championships are part of the annual RIDE NZ Cycling Festival which includes a time trial for recreational riders on Thursday, the Championship Time Trial on Friday and popular Gran Fondo fan ride on Saturday which includes rides over 30km, 87km and 165kms. The championship, supported by Grassroots Trust, concludes with the Elite Road Nationals on Sunday.
Victory in the road race would mean a third victory for Williams, which would draw her level with Cath Cheatley and Melissa Holt and one behind the retired Rushlee Buchanan as the most successful female riders, while defence of her time trial crown would make her the fourth crown, second only to Holt.
The 28-year-old will return to her Team Bike Exchange-Jayco team for a sixth year in the UCI Women’s WorldTour, hoping to put debilitating injuries from 2021 behind her.
Two crashes in the Giro d’Italia Donne and Paris-Roubaix resulted in a total of four months off the bike recovering from concussion, and while she has now fully fit, it has left her a few bricks shy of a load in her preparations for the national championships.
“I would have liked a few more weeks of training to be at where I was last year, but I’ve had nearly three months at home over summer which has been great,” said Williams.
“The two crashes were the worst luck and took so long to recover from but I am good now although stressing a bit about nationals.”
There are changes within her professional team, taking on a more senior role with some new young signings, which means Williams may get more racing opportunities rather than purely domestique duties.
She has her eyes set on selection for the Commonwealth Games, after winning silver at the Gold Coast in 2018, as well as selection for the UCI World Championships in Australia.
“My big targets are the Commonwealth Games, the Ardennes in the spring and hopefully either or both of the Giro and Tour de France. It would be really cool to do the worlds which will be as close as we ever get to a home-worlds, so family and friends can go.”
Williams said with the strength of kiwi women on the WorldTour, if she gained selection for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the team could potentially be extremely strong.
Before that is the weekend’s time trial and road race.
“It looks a really hard time trial course with an eight-minute climb up Te Miro and then you come barrelling down. Some parts are open to the wind and overall it is interesting, technical with changes of direction, up and down – a really fun course.”
The road race has three laps up the daunting climb of Maungakawa behind Cambridge which will be a significant test in the 109km race.
“The race might split up even more than last year. I might need to change my tactics because they will be expecting me to go early like last year. Maybe I can catch them out somewhere else?”
There are two other WorldTour riders in the field, in 2021 national criterium champion Olivia Ray, and last year under-23 time trial winner, Henrietta Christie, who both join Human Powered Health, formerly Team Rally. Joining them is Michaela Drummond, who competed at the track world championships, but is equally adept on the road, for Italian professional team BePink.
A number of Tokyo Olympians are also racing, led by the 2019 road race national champion Holly Edmondson and Bryony Botha, fresh off breaking the long-standing national individual pursuit record.
There will be interest in Commonwealth Games mountain biker Samara Sheppard and a bunch of strong young road and track riders.
The women’s Under-23 and Elite time trial starts from 10.30am on Friday with the 109km road race from 8am on Sunday.
Public can still enter in the RIDE Festival community rides Saturday’s Gran Fondo public ride, which offer a range of outstanding prizes, by visiting http://ridenz.bike/ with Gran Fondo entries closing midnight on Wednesday 9 February.
Photo Credit: Elko Photography
NOTE: Under the Red Light Covid Traffic level, there’s no spectators allowed but there is live timing for the Time Trial and last laps of the Road Race. Details will be available on our website later this week.
Details: www.eliteroadnationals.nz