Refreshed Georgia Williams targets elite NZ road crown
A fit and healthy Georgia Williams is determined to get back to where she was in 2018, writes Phillip Rollo.
GEORGIA Williams is hoping to reclaim the national jersey this week, after prioritising the New Zealand championships over a race in Australia with her professional cycling team.
The Team Bike Exchange rider believes she can recapture the form that saw her collect a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 after overcoming health issues that have plagued her for almost two years.
She has targeted a win at the elite road national championships in Cambridge from February 12-14.
Williams was originally scheduled to begin the year at the Santos Festival of Cycling in Adelaide last month – a Tour Down Under lite featuring mainly local Australian riders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But with spots in managed isolation booked up until June, the 27-year-old Aucklander elected to withdraw from the stage race in order to focus on the national championships, where the winner will earn the right to don the silver fern for the rest of the year.
‘‘It came down to nationals or Tour Down Under and obviously nationals is very important for me, so my team let me stay for the national champs,’’ Williams said.
‘‘If I went to Australia I would’ve had to have gone straight to Europe, so I’m very lucky to be able to have the extra time in New Zealand, and be able to race nationals.
‘‘I really, really want to win. I think the time trial will be very hard, well they’re both going to be hard, but the time trial more so with Teresa Adam. She’s a pretty strong Ironman racer and I’ve heard she’s going pretty good.’’
Williams won both the road race and time trial in 2018, but was unable to compete last year after suffering a concussion from a crash in the lead-up.
It compounded a frustrating period for Williams after being struck down with Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, more commonly known as REDS
syndrome, for almost two years. The illness is caused by not getting enough food to fuel the body.
But a fit and healthy Williams is determined to get back to where she was in 2018, when she won nationals, collected silver at the Commonwealth Games and registered her best result on the Women’s World Tour, by finishing fourth at Emakumeen Bira in Spain.
She also felt there was an opportunity to take on a bigger role at the recently renamed Team Bike Exchange, formerly Mitchelton-Scott, following the departure of world No 2 Annemiek Van Vleuten.
‘‘It’s not been the smoothest of journeys the last year, pretty much two years. There’s been a few things that have been getting in the way — but that’s another reason why I’m more determined to race nationals because I finally feel like I’m on top of that and healthy again.
‘‘. . . we’ve lost Annemiek and our directors have said they want more of us to step up and more of us are going to get opportunities, and I’m hoping to be one of them.’’
Williams was the only New Zealand female rider in the pro peloton in 2018, but welcomed the recent emergence of highlyrated prospects Niamh FisherBlack, Mikayla Harvey, Ella Harris and Olivia Ray.
She hoped the greater depth will avoid another scenario where the country failed to obtain enough points to qualify for the Olympics, as in Tokyo 2021.
‘‘We were just one year too late. They got lots of points last year so if the qualification went off last year we would’ve qualified, but it was off 2019, and we didn’t have quite enough. It’s pretty frustrating because we could totally be up there now and fighting for a top-10.’’
Defending national champion Fisher-Black and Harvey elected to stay in Europe after joining new teams, but Williams said she was proud to see other riders from ‘‘little New Zealand’’ taste success on the world stage. ‘‘I’m proud of them too because it is really hard and I went through that also — coming from little New Zealand and trying to make it on the World Tour.’’
‘I’m proud of them too because it is really hard and I went through that also — coming from little New Zealand and trying to make it on the World Tour.’