With much of the team needing some serious rest/recoup after the Tour of New Zealand, only 3 members of the team were lining up for the Oceania titles.
Clare and Chloe raced the Individual Time Trial on the Thursday, both posting very solid results with Chloe in 8th place and Clare in 13th position. Shara Gillow showed why she got top 10 at the World Championships, stomping home 52seconds in front of 2nd placed Bridie O’Donnell. Alexis Rhodes rounded out the podium in 3rd place.
116km Road Race
The Dookie circuit was a lot tougher riding than what it looked on paper and with an extremely strong field of 60 odd girls it was a damn tough day out there!
Honda Dream Team were looking to secure Rochelle Gilmore a spot for World Champs and had a strong team who chased everything down, hoping for the race to be decided by a sprint.
Bec and Clare did a great job of trying to control the bunch when Chloe was attacking off the front.
It wasn’t until the final lap of the course that an attack stuck... Shara Gillow attacked and Chloe found the legs to go with her. About 10km from the finish Shara got the word that Bridie O’Donnell was bridging the gap across solo and attacked Chloe on the main climb, again showing why she is a world class athlete, staying away to take the Oceania Road title.
Bridie reached Chloe about 3km from home and after spending the last 20km on threshold Chloe couldn’t quite stay with her into the finish, but had the race of her life to hold off the peloton by 40seconds and secure 3rd place in an international UCI event.
It was great to have the support of manager Kim Howard and also awesome for Chloe’s family and boyfriend to be there watching her have a ripper!
Thanks to our sponsors as well for the new kit that arrived in time for the race. It got some good exposure with a podium place!!
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