HIGH ROAD’S WOOD TAKES AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPS

High Road’s Wood Takes Australian National Champs less than 3 weeks of the new year Giant has already had 3 Pro victories with the new team High Road.

Oenone Wood opened up High Road Women’s team’s victory roster for 2008 with a fine first place in the Australian Road-Race Championships on Friday.

A strong pre-race favourite, Wood comfortably outgunned Sharon Laws in a thrilling two-up sprint finale, with Sara Carrigan crossing the line 25 seconds later in third. It was Wood’s second national title, this time secured on a 102 kilometre course in Ballarat.

Ninth in Wednesday’s time trial event after she crashed on the start ramp, Wood said she was delighted to have turned the tables so quickly.

Coming up with a win following Wednesday’s disaster was just what I needed for my morale. It’s also a great way to start the season and to get the ball rollling for High Road’s women’s team. Part of a group of 12 that fused at the front of the race with three laps of the 10 lap event to go, Wood broke away with Laws less than 10 kilometres from the line.

The key [to winning] was to go with anybody that moved on the last climb. Wood commented later. I felt good and just knew I had to be patient. Sharon and I worked well together, we knew that we were guaranteed a podium place by doing so. Wood made a point of thanking her trade team-mate Alex Rhodes for helping her out during the first part of the race. Rhodes also finished in the top 20 - three minutes down, in a group of eight riders.

Her win means that together with Roger Hammond’s victory in the UK national cyclo-cross championships and Adam Hansen’s first place in the Australian men’s time trial race, High Road have taken no less than three victories in less than a week. Wood says she will now be aiming for the national mountain bike title prior to heading to a training camp in California. Giant have kindly given me a bike for it, and given the national titles are in my home region of Canberra, I thought why not go for it?