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Written by Josh Alston
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Monday, 11 January 2010 |
A DREAM race has come with a dream result for Townsville super mum Ruth Corset who powered home to win the women's Australian Open Road Championships in Victoria at the weekend.
The 32-year-old mother-of-two overcame severe cramping, exhaustion and dehydration in 40C temperatures to win for the first time in the tortuous 102km race.
The win means she will wear the green and gold of Australia on her Tibco jersey on her tours of Europe this year.
It caps a stellar 12 months in which she was named the 2009 Australian Elite Road Cyclist of the Year.
Corset finished runner-up last year and fourth the year before in her first attempt.
``It was my goal to win this race and I had been training very, very hard because I really wanted the green and gold on the Tibco kit to wear in Europe,'' she said. ``Now I've got it I'm extremely happy.''
Corset didn't have it all her own way, with South Australian Rachel Neylan and four-time German Olympian Judith Arndt putting up a tough fight.
The pair were in a commanding position near the end of the race until a bold move from Corset and her teammate Emma Mackie chopped them down.
``With two laps to go they were still a minute thirty (seconds) in front and still no one had responded, so my teammate Emma Mackie -- who I will be racing with in Europe -- planned to attack halfway up the climb and then I would counterattack,'' Corset said. ``It worked perfectly, when I countered the field split completely and no one was able to go with me.
``On the last climb I just went hard as I could and dropped Judith and Rachel, I looked back and they were gone.
``My legs were cramping and I was just spewing so much, I wasn't able to keep anything down in the last lap which made it so hard.
``With 3km to go I was given a gap time of 20 seconds so I knew I just had to dig deep and go as hard as I could to the finish line.''
The win was made even more sweet by the fact that Corset's husband Jason and children Stephanie and Caitlin were present in Buninyong, south of Ballarat, to cheer her on.
``It was great to have them there, it made it even better having my family there and it was great to celebrate with them afterwards,'' she said.
``It was definitely the biggest win of my career because now I'm able to wear the green and gold when I go away to race in Europe.''
Fellow Queenslander Michael Hepburn won the under-23 men's race while unheralded Western Australian Travis Meyer claimed victory in the men's.
Women's road race (102km)
1. Ruth Corset (QLD) 3h10m09s
2. Bridie O'Donnell (VIC) +18s
3. Judith Arndt (GER) +18s
Men's road race (163.2km)
1. Travis Meyer (WA) 4h26m31s
2. David Kemp (Qld) +0m31s
3. Damien Turner (Vic) +1m08s
Men's U-23 road race (122.4km)
1. Michael Hepburn (QLD) 3h20m07s
2. Malcolm Rudolph (QLD) +0.03s
3. Michael Matthews (ACT) +0.56s
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 January 2010 )
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