FINISHING TOUCHES

COURSE CHANGE SETS UP BAKER GOLD

IT ended up being Georgia Baker who claimed the women’s road race gold — her third of the Games after two on the track, putting her in very exclusive club.

But if it wasn’t for a last-minute shift of the finish line, which forced a late change to Australian plans, it would have been Alex Manly who would have been sprinting for gold.

The Australian team of Baker, Manly, Grace Brown, Brodie Chapman, Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Sarah Roy – who won the bronze medal – completely controlled the 112km race in Warwick to set up a comfortable sprint victory for Baker

But the plan, as late as a day out from the race, was for Manly to be the main hope. Then the team found out that the finish line had been moved to a position that favoured a fast and furious bunch sprint.

“The finish had actually changed to what we thought, before we arrived here,” Baker said. “We previously thought that the finish would be across the bridge with another 300m to go.

“So when we saw the finish our plan changed a bit and I think that shows the depth of our team and how much we trust each other that we have a lot of girls that can win.

“We were really controlled and really calm out there, we trusted everyone and when everyone plays their role something special can happen.”

Going for gold with Manly was still a back-pocket option for the Australians if the race didn’t go as predicted. But despite England’s Anna Henderson attacking more than 20 times in the first 50km of the race, it went as predicted for the Australians.

Henderson herself launched an extraordinary spray post race, labelling the Australian’s tactics as “really boring”.

“It was a rubbish race,” she said. “The Australians had a really boring race plan.

“I thought, ‘you’re strong enough to win the race and be in the break and win the sprint’ so why don’t you race in the race. “The Australians just played it really boring, didn’t really make a show of it.”

Baker said she was pleased that it went as planned.

“From the start of the race it was if it went the way we thought it would and it would end up being a bunch sprint, I would be sprinting,” Baker said.

“But if it was going to be a really aggressive, hard race and the other nations were going to make it super hard then potentially Alex Manly would be sprinting.

“We made a call about 20km to go out there on the road, I was feeling good and we stuck to the plan.”

It is Baker’s third gold of the Games after being a part in the women’s team pursuit win and then taking out the points race on the track at the Lee Valley velodrome in London.

It means the 27-year-old is the first person since Australian cycling trailblazer Kathy Watt at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada to win medals at the track and on the road at the same Games.

“I think the way Australian cycling is going moving forward we should be able to do more of this with transitioning between the two and supporting your ambitions on the track and on the road,” Baker said.

“To be honest, it was the first time I’ve ever done this, it has been a whole new experience for me.”

Roy, 36, also competed on the track and said it was exciting for Australian female cyclists to have success in both. “I think for women’s cycling we have seen so many track girls transition to the road and Georgia is one of them,” she said,

“Other nations have been quite successful at that, but for Australia I think it has been a bit harder being so far away from the heart of cycling that is Europe.

“But I think we are seeing the benefit of that and our federation are looking at ways to do this more.”