KALINDA Robinson's 2021 is off to a dream start after the Bathurst Cycling Club and Western Region Academy of Sport star claimed overall victory in the NSW Sprint GP Series.
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Robinson only narrowly missed her personal best on her way to a best time of 11.616 seconds in the 200m sprint, which made her the fastest woman of the event.
The GP series sees riders produce a qualifying time before being broken up into pools with riders of a similar ability - giving everyone a chance to get in head-to-head practice.
Robinson showed she's developing in the right direction following her TrackNats silver medal in the individual sprint.
The Bathurst rider said her time was pleasing considering the lack events available over the past season.
"It feels great to get back racing. It's been a while. It's also nice to have something which is just sprint racing, which is not normally something we get a lot of," she said.
"It's great to get practice against people who are faster than me and around the same level. You do a qualifier and then get split into groups of four, where the people you race do similar times to you.
"That lets you practice the tactical side of things rather than getting beaten by someone ridiculously faster than you. My tactics were definitely a bit rusty with not much racing over the last couple of months. It's good to get back into the swing of things though."
Following her initial sprint Robinson first tested herself among the third-fastest pool of riders, first going up against Jaydan Stanton-Keir, losing to his winning time of 11.68.
Gary Mandy (12.03) and Daniel Samuel (11.85) both got the better of Robinson in the follow up races but the race experience against open-age competition was beneficial for the Bathurst cyclist.
Fellow Bathurst riders Dan Googe and Tyler Puzicha also impressed.
Googe came away fifth overall in the event with his time of 10.943 while Puzicha was the third fastest woman of the event in 12.251.
Robinson and Puzicha were separated on the podium by their fellow Elite TrackNats team sprint silver medallist Selina Ho (11.976).
South Cross club rider Tom Cornish (10.308) was the fastest overall, a tenth ahead of Dubbo's Dan Barber (10.405).
Robinson hopes that the sprint series lays a good foundation for her to build towards her next big event in March.
"It was about point one of my PB so I was pretty happy with that," she said.
"I have nationals at the end of March so hopefully I'll be able to get some good results there. With COVID I'm still not sure what events are going to be following that but that's the next big thing I have to look forward to."