Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Nettie Edmondson continued her journey towards the upcoming World Track Championships, and the Rio Olympics, with the addition of two more National Titles at the Australian Track Championships this weekend. Riding in the colours of the South Australian Sports Institute, the 24-year-old Adelaidean took a dominant victory in Friday’s Points Race, then lapped the field to take a hard-fought, but simple victory in Saturday’s Scratch Race.
“I’m pretty happy with the last weekend of racing at the National Championships,” Edmondson smiled. “I obviously go into races hoping to win, so this was no different. We’re going into the World Championships in a few weeks, so I wanted to make the most of each race; get a bit more racing in the legs and to make some smart race decisions out there and I think I managed to do that.
“I tried something to shake things up a bit in the Scratch Race,” she explained. “We went in with a different tactic, because we had three girls in there from South Australia, and our chances were greater if me tried to break it up and were more aggressive. I managed to take a lap, which is pretty unusual for me as I would normally wait for a sprint finish.
“I definitely tested my legs, and I know what my limits are, so yeah, I was pretty happy with that.”
Both Points and Scratch races are part of the Omnium, in which Edmondson is the reigning World Champion. She is set to defend her rainbow jersey at the World Championships at the beginning of March, and the 24-year-old feels that her intensive Australian-summer schedule has set her on course to do so.
“We’ve been training pretty hard for the last two months,” Edmondson said. “We had two months of pretty tough training before the New Zealand World Cup, and we came back and have been continuing that. I had a bit of a mixed couple of weeks with the Tour Down Under, and it was nice to feel quite good in the racing. I felt like I had a bit of speed, even though I’ve not really been working on that.
“It’s really positive leading into the World Championships,” she smiled.
Result Points Race
1. Annette Edmondson (South Australia)
2. Isabella King (Western Australia)
3. Alexandra Manly (South Australia)
Result Scratch Race
1. Annette Edmondson (South Australia)
2. Georgia Baker (Tasmania)
3. Ashlee Ankudinoff (New South Wales)
Photo Credit: John Veage/Fairfax Media
