Melbourne (Australia) Commonwealth Games

March 26, 2006 | British Cycling's Larry Hickmott reports

Women's Road Race

The expected, perhaps feared, Australian domination of the Road Races began with a great win for Natalie Bates (pictured, right) in the women's event. She soloed away from the one significant break of the race on the penultimate lap and came in some three minutes ahead of team-mate Oenone Wood, who just got the jump on Nicole Cooke in the bunch sprint for the silver and bronze. England's Rachel Heal was fifth after an incident packed race.

The event was run over nine laps of an 11.1km course in almost perfect, sunny morning conditions. Almost from the gun, five riders - Mandy Poitras (Canada), Natalie Bates (Australia), Emma Davis-Jones (England), Toni Bradshaw (New Zealand) and Noor Azian Binti Alias (Malaysia) - went away and they dictated much of the way the rest of the race panned out.

For the first half of the race, the break steadily pulled away until their lead was around the three minute mark and with all the main teams - England, Australia and New Zealand - represented, there was little motivation to chase. When the defending champion, Nicole Cooke, finally lost patience and attacked in an attempt to bridge, the response in the main field behind her caused a big crash.

Olivia Gollan (Australia) appeared to clip Nicole Cooke's rear wheel and went down, leaving Melissa Holt (New Zealand) nowhere to go and she went straight over the bars as she hit the prone Aussie. Bronze medallist four years ago, Rachel Heal (England), also came down. Heal and Gollan re-mounted, but Holt departed for hospital with a suspected shoulder injury.

Nicole Cooke and occasionally Sarah Ulmer continued to drive the chase, whilst in the front group Emma Davies was doing a big proportion of the work - so much so that when she was slowed by a mechanical, they appeared to wait for her. For a time the gap to the lead group began to fall and it was down to about 90 seconds, before going back out to over three minutes.

Rachel Heal - two crashes, but still strong enough for fifth

Natalie Bates' race-winning move came with just over two laps to go. She had contributed little to the leading group's progress, confident that if the break were caught, her remaining team-mates would be able to win the race anyway. However, when she did go, it was with the confidence and total commitment of someone who knew what she had to do to win the race. It appeared that there was little response from the other four riders, though in truth she went so hard that there was probably little they could do.

Behind her, Rachel Heal had re-joined the main field, but not before another crash whilst chasing to get back on, when she slid off going round a tight corner.

At the front, Bates continued to motor clear and went through with a lap to go over two minutes clear and on course for gold. Behind her, the four chasers rather gave up and were caught also with about a lap to go.

Bates was able to enjoy the moment to the full as she crossed the line to win the race, whilst behind her Oenone Wood got the better of Nicole Cooke in a protracted ding-dong sprint battle for silver and bronze.

Oenone Wood knows that beating Nicole Cooke, even for silver, really means something

It's interesting to contrast the way the race went with 2002 Manchester version. In that race, Aussie Margaret Hemsley was riding to victory when she crashed out just over a lap from the finish and Nicole Cooke went on to win.

The odds had been stacked against Cooke that day, but a combination of bad luck for Hemsley and Cooke's tenacity saw her through. This time, for all her bravery and determination, the Australians always had too much firepower and it would have taken monumental bad luck to rob them again.

Cooke was clearly painfully conscious of the odds against her when she spoke immediately after crossing the line: "I'm very, very pleased. Bronze is as good as a gold for me. I did everything I could. I had to place my bets and take a gamble and came away with a bronze. It was six against one. They (the Australians) could attack one at a time and that would be six attacks to cover."

Credit must go to Rachel Heal who showed guts and determination to come back from two crashes to salvage fifth.


Results, Womens Road Race - 100km
1 Natalie Bates (Australia) 2.56.08 (34.123km/h)
2 Oenone Wood (Australia) @ 3.05
3 Nicole Cooke (Wales)
4 Gina Katherine Grain (Canada)
5 Rachel Heal (England)
6 Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand) 3.07
7 Sara Carrigan (Australia) 3.19
8 Amy Hunt (England) 3.21
9 Olivia Gollan (Australia)
10 Rochelle Gilmore (Australia) 3.24
11 Erinne Willock (Canada)
12 Charlotte Goldsmith (England)
13 Nikki Harris (England)
14 Wendy Houvenaghel (England)
15 Amy Moore (Canada)
16 Toni Bradshaw (New Zealand) 3.27
17 Sarah Ulmer (New Zealand) 3.31
18 Kate Bates (Australia)
19 Susan Janne Palmer-Komar (Canada) 4.01
20 Noor Azian Binti Alias (Malaysia)
21 Emma Davies Jones Jones (England) 5.32
22 Mandy Poitras (Canada) 5.43
23 Michelle Hyland (New Zealand) 6.03
24 Iona Parks (Jamaica) 7.09
25 Julia Lesley Hawley (Bermuda) 7.19
26 Susie Wood (New Zealand)
27 Audrey Lemieux (Canada) 8.55
28 Stephania Magri (Malta) 13.20
29 Norizan Binti Musa (Malaysia) 15.42
DNF Melissa Holt (New Zealand)