Williams claims double
MITCHELTON-SCOTT professional Georgia Williams has scored a dominating double by adding the road race honours to Friday’s time trial win at the New Zealand road cycling championships in Napier.
The 24-year-old bridged up to the breakaway on the first climb of Napier Hill and from there soloed away for an emphatic victory in the 114km road race championship yesterday.
Williams has previously finished runner-up three times in the road race in her four attempts, but the experience of a debut year on the women’s world tour showed in her dominant display.
The Aucklander had previously been a key part of the elite endurance track squad, having competed at the Rio Olympics, before a late call-up to the Australian-based team in 2017. Her development was on display with a powerful effort to win the time trial title by 40 seconds on the first day and with a brilliant effort in the road race.
She won in 3:37:05 with a massive 4:41 to Sharlotte Lucas (Velo Project, Canterbury) who outsprinted under-23 winner Grace Anderson (Team Illuminate, Auckland) and local Hawkes Bay rider Kirsty McCallum (Velo Project).
‘‘I can’t explain how excited I am with the win. It was perfect today,’’ said Williams. ‘‘It is a dream come true. I came here aimed at winning this title. It’s brilliant.
‘‘The Aussie girls in my team at Mitchelton-Scott have been ribbing me about it and to be the first person from our team to win a title in 2018 is fantastic. It is going to be a real honour to wear the New Zealand jersey in all the big races around the world this year.’’
Williams might have the last laugh with her team bosses indicating she would be released to ride in the Commonwealth Games where she could well come up against some of those teammates.
She sat in the peloton on the 55km country loop to the Taradale hills, while Kerri-Anne Page, Laura Newman-Watt and Natalie Kerwin opened a four-minute advantage. Williams jumped out of the pack to bridge up to the leaders on the first of five climbs of the infamous Napier Hill.
By the end of the first full lap of the city circuit, Williams had opened a 30-second advantage on Page and 1:10 on the peloton. At PHOTOSPORT the top of the hill for the second time Williams had continued to solo away with 1:41 to Page, and a massive 2:45 to the 14-strong bunch.
From that point she simply powered away for an emphatic win. ‘‘I wanted to make it a hard race. I went to basically split up the bunch but when I got to the top of the hill no-one had come with me. I continued on and the gap kept growing,’’ Williams said.
‘‘I got nervous that I may have gone too early but I felt strong and just focused. It’s amazing to win and to do it with such a big margin.’’
Kate McIlroy was fourth ahead of Rio Olympians Raquel Sheath and defending champion Rushlee Buchanan with debutante Jojo Bauer, sister of Jack Bauer, seventh in her first nationals.