Eurobodalla Cyclist Jemma O'Brien is one of the many riders currently battling the cold and juggling full-time work to compete in Australia's elite women's National Road Series (NRS). To help train, O'Brien has managed to get some good long rides with the Eurobodalla Cyclists every couple of weeks in preparation for the slog ahead.
Last Sunday she competed in the 160km Muswellbrook Explorer category two NRS event, and although being short on training kilometres, she battled out the early attacks by Olympic gold medallist Kathy Watt to join series leader and former team mate Vcki Whitelaw from Canberra in the decisive breakaway at 40km into the race.
O'Brien was unable to match the defending NRS champion's fitness (just returned from an overseas stint with the Australian team) and was soon trailing by over three minutes. The gap turned to five minutes by 100km at Sandy Hollow, but that was the extent of Whitelaw's lead and the diminutive Tuross Head super athlete had closed the gap back to three and a half minutes by the finish to gain second place, a whopping 18 minutes ahead of the main women's group.
It is already a vast improvement on her early season form, which started with the first NRS event at Canberra in April. O'Brien finished 42nd.
In the Perth Tour in late May she scored her first NRS points of the year in some very tight racing with the Australian team members, finishing sixth GC only 30 seconds off a podium finish.
A bout of the flu and university exams had her legless again for Canberra at the Kowalski women's tour a fortnight ago, but she gained 12th GC after a body revolt in stage two for 17th place. But her eighth in the Individual Time Trial and seventh stage three was a satisfying outcome after re-jigging her time trial setup and reorganising her training regime based around work and uni studies.
O'Brien is now gearing up for the big events on her calendar, the Ballarat Grand Prix in August at the testing Buninyong course - seven laps and 21km of climbing plus ITT and criterium - followed by the 120km Cootamundra Classic handicap, the 170km Grafton to Glen Innes and the mighty 185km Goulburn before taking a break and competing in the 24-hour Marathon Mountain Bike Championships. NRS points will be well and truly earned by that time and hopefully O'Brien will have improved on her current 10th place and will be feeling the warmth of the longer daylight.
