KEY POINTS:
Besides the honour of wearing the national champion's jersey for a year on the international stage, other factors will raise the stakes higher at tomorrow's elite national road races in Upper Hutt, north of Wellington tomorrow.
On display will be the New Zealand men's team debuting in next week's prestigious Tour Down Under. Tim Gudsell, Heath Blackgrove, Peter Latham, Logan Hutchings, Clinton Avery, Matthew Haydock, Gordon McCauley and Scott Lyttle will want to prove their fitness for the six-day South Australian stage race in front of national road coach and team manager Jacques Landry.
Besides them, professional racer, Julian Dean, will be competing in his first road nationals, as will yesterday's time trial winner, Glen Chadwick, a Belgium-based expatriate who, at 30, has decided to make a charge to represent New Zealand after years competing professionally on an Australian licence.
With defending champion Hayden Roulston sidelined by injuries after crashing in training early this week, Counties-Manukau hardman McCauley, still smarting from finishing second to Chadwick in the time trial, will also be a contender.
The hilly course is expected to be punishing and the race run in less than ideal weather as periods of rain are forecast for Wellington tomorrow.
The men will race a total of 156km, riding the Blue Mountains three times and Wallaceville Hill five times.
The women will loop the Blue Mountains twice and Wallaceville Hill 3-1/2 times for a total distance of 101km.
Other sections include "The Rollers" and Mangaroa Hill, making it the sort of course McCauley will revel in and he could well reprise his 2005 win when he led for all but the first 5km of the 175km road race in Palmerston North.
Blackgrove, a serious contender after winning the recent Vineyards Tour in Nelson, says the peloton cannot let Chadwick out of their sights.
According to Chadwick's American Navigators team website, he has been known to "fight through food poisoning, broken bones and even frostbite" to race.
"He's a very strong rider, one that can't be underestimated or be allowed to get away because you won't see him again," said Blackgrove, who will now captain the Tour Down Under team in place of Roulston.
Credit Agricole rider Dean is the unknown factor, despite his reputation -- he has raced the Tour de France twice in the last three years and has the tag of being one of the best lead-out riders in the world.
". . . no one really knows -- he hasn't done any (domestic) racing for anyone to know how well he'll be going," Blackgrove said.
"But I'm pretty sure he wouldn't ride if he didn't think he'd have a chance and he's our top road rider by a long way."
Landry will be looking closely at the elite women's and men's under-23 races.
There are six to eight places available for the women at his European training centre in Limoux, southern France, and another four for the men's under-23s.
He told NZPA today he would be looking for "aggressive smart" racers who are not pack riders.
"We want riders who basically put it out there and try and win the race as opposed to racing against each other."
The available spots would not be filled if there weren't riders thought capable of sending to the ETC.
Christchurch professional rider Joanne Kiesanowski, a member of the 2006 World Cup series-winning Swiss Univega Pro team, will start as favourite for the women's title.
She is in good form after finishing fourth at the Jacob's Creek stage race in Australia last week.
But as Te Awamutu's Melissa Holt pointed out, there were quite a number of riders with "race legs" who had been doing a lot of racing in the last couple of months.
"It is a very hilly course for tomorrow," said Holt who suffered a bad shoulder injury at the Commonwealth Games after crashing into an Australian rider who fell in front of her and somersaulting off her bike in the road race.
"Tomorrow is going to be sapping and demanding and requires someone that is strong and climbing super well."
Holt who finished fourth in yesterday's time trial after a puncture cost her precious time, said Kiesanowski, Michelle Hyland and Sarah Ulmer would be the strongest riders there, along with defending champion Catherine Sell.
Other contenders could be Gina Waibl, Rosara Joseph, Michelle Hyland and time trial winner Alison Shanks.
All eyes will be on Ulmer who will be testing herself after undergoing a strict programme to overcome a persistent nerve problem that has clouded her ambition to become a world time trial champion.
- NZPA
