Race Results

Tour Down Under - Women's Criterium Series

^{January 18-23} 

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Round 2

Kate Bates finished easily in front of the bunch to take victory in Round 2 of the Advertiser Women's Criterium Series at the Tour Down Under. Competing on a 640m circuit at Goolwa, the venue for the second sprint point on the place-to-place Glenelg to Victor Harbour stage 3 of the Tour Down Under,  the criterium took place about an 1.5 hours before the race came through the small town in front of a growing and knowledgeable crowd.

With temperatures a little lower than earlier in the week, the women's race was made difficult by a headwind in the finishing straight. With just 30 minutes plus 3 laps, the race was frenetic and perhaps suited those comfortable with the longer, faster track events such as the scratch race or points race. That said, Sara Carrigan worked hard today and showed her form in this series, which comes after last week's Australian National Championship road race, her first racing since the Olympics in August.

The action started almost from the gun, as Jessie MacLean jumped clear and built up a 14 second gap. Her effort lasted about 3 or 4 laps, until she was brought back by the fast moving and ever-attentive bunch. Just after half race distance, Sara Carrigan went off the front on her own and was joined a lap later by Natalie Bates and then, a lap later, by Jenny Macpherson. Macpherson was marking the move - her third place in Round 1 making her the best-placed rider in the breakaway and therefore contender for the series lead if the three managed to stay away until the finish. It was not to be, however, as Kate Bates, sister of Natalie, counterattacked in the finishing straight with about 5 minutes to go. She soon  made space between herself and the bunch. Despite chases by a solo Sara Carrigan and Jenny Macpherson, who was trying desperately to wind up the speed of the bunch, she managed to stay away. Carrigan was pulled back into the bunch and at the bell, there was no obvious contender for second place.

As Bates rounded the final bend about 100m from the finish, she had time to check over her shoulder and coast in with an arm raised to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. Kate Nichols, who had not really showed her face earlier sprinted clear to take second, like Bates, having time to raise a hand to those lining the barriers and cheering the riders in. Third place was taken by Victorian Emma Rickards. 

Speaking afterwards, Kate Bates was pleased with her victory, which comes on the back of a triple gold medal winning visit to the Track World Cup in Manchester (UK) a couple of weeks ago. She explained that team tactics had played a part in her victory - with the NSWIS riders attacking and then counterattacking when it all came back together. "Its all about timing really". What had  she thought of the circuit? "It was good, it was pretty tough with a big headwind coming up the finish straight.  A lot of girls were just attacking constantly and there wasn't a lot of downtime - that makes the circuit just tough, the only time you had to recover was going into the corners." Whilst this victory had not put Bates into the series lead, she went on to add that "We're pretty keen to have a good day on Saturday and take the jersey". 

The leader's jersey goes to Rochelle Gilmore - ahead of Emma Rickards, who has the same number of points. A countback on placings over the 2 events sees Gilmore as the most consistent, thereby deciding the jersey.

Results

Round 2

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