THE first two stages may not have gone to plan, but it was a case for third time lucky Emily Watts and her Sydney Uni-Staminade team-mates in the Tour Of Tasmania.
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On the third and final stage of the National Road Series finale – a 36 kilometre criterium in Devonport – former Bathurst Cycling Club member Watts and her team-mates executed perfectly.
With Watts doing the lead out work, team-mate Georgia Whitehouse won each of the intermediate sprints and the final dash to the line.
It meant she picked up the team’s first stage win of the NRS season as well as clinching the sprint classification honours.
“To end the season on such a high like that, it was amazing,” Watts said.
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“We hadn’t got a win all season, so it was just the top off we all worked so hard for, so it was just amazing. I was definitely a team effort there, so it was great.”
Sydney Uni-Staminade had gone into the final round of the NRS season hoping to take out of of the two road stages. It was a plan they had to alter.
On day one – a 71.5km leg from Longford to Poatina – Watts ended up the best ranked rider for her team as she placed 11th.
“We did bring a hill climber especially for it, but she unfortunately was sick for it, so she didn’t perform as well as expected,” Watts explained.
“For the first day we just went out with our hill climber wanting to nail it up the hill, but that didn’t pan out. I was the first rider up for the team, so I became protected for the second race.”
That second stage was a 70.5km leg from Ulverstone to Riana, but Watts was not feeling her best. She ended up in 13th, two minutes, 48 seconds off the pace.
“I wasn’t leading out Georgie for the sprints, I was just sitting in preparing myself to get up [the climb] as fast as I could and stay with the bunch,” the Lithgow teenager said.
“Unfortunately that didn’t pan out with my sore legs, so I ended up being in a chasing bunch and ended up with a good time, which I was really, really happy with.”
However, the team maintained hope and on the final stage their hard work paid off.
“We knew Georgie had a good sprint on her. Me and and Georgie hadn’t practised our lead out, but we just meshed so well together for our lead out,” Watts said.
“So we knew the lead out was amazing, our sprinter was amazing and we just had to pull it off.”
The success in the criterium at the Tour of Tasmania was certainly a major highlight in what was Watts’ first season competing in the NRS.
But her personal highlight came at Lorne in September when contesting Amy’s Otway Tour.
She placed seventh in the criterium and fifth in the 120.6km road race which followed. That saw her finish fourth outright, 22 seconds down on Ashlee Ankudinoff – a Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
“I really enjoyed it. Amy’s was probably the standout performance for me because it was such a long race and not knowing what would happen and coming up with such a great result. I was really happy,” Watts said.
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Watts’ next task will be in Melbourne for the national omnium and super criterium before then preparing for the Australian road titles in January.
No doubt she will put to use what she has learned.
“The girls that I have been with have just taught me so much. I no longer sit on the front when I don’t need to, I do my work and I do my lead outs – I’ve just learnt so much,” she said.
“Being with a team is definitely so very different to being an individual rider, it’s amazing. You just look for the pink helmet and ride to them, you tell them how you feel and they tell you how they feel, you know that you’re not alone.”
