Corset digs deep for national road title

Queensland mother of two Ruth Corset overcame illness and tough conditions on
Saturday to win her first Australian open road cycling championship.
The 32-year-old went one better than last year's result, breaking clear on the last
lap to take out the women's road race at the Australian road titles.
Corset was vomiting and cramping late in the 102km event on the testing 10km circuit
at Buninyong, near Ballarat.
Only 29 of the 71 starters finished the women's road race as temperatures hit the
mid-30s and strong winds also buffeted the race, while the men's under-23 road race
earlier in the day had 30 finishers from 106 starters.
"I've just been wanting this more than anything," said Corset, who was second in
2009 behind Carla Ryan.
"It was very, very hard, tough conditions - I'm from Townsville and it's quite humid
there, I'm not used to the dry heat.
"The last few laps I was throwing up, I couldn't hold anything down and that last
lap was so hard, my legs were cramping, I just gritted my teeth and went for it."
Corset's husband Jason and her daughters Stephanie, seven, and Caitlin, five, were
at the finish.
She finished 18 seconds clear of Victorian Bridie O'Donnell, who pumped her fist at
the finish and was in tears on the podium as she celebrated her best performance in
a road race.
O'Donnell finished just ahead of German world champion Judith Arndt, who also had an
outstanding race.
Arndt attacked on the second lap and led by more than two minutes as she stayed away
for well over half the race.
Her brave performance comes after Robbie McEwen's call last month for the nationals
to no longer have open status, but become Australian-only.
O'Donnell said she agreed with McEwen's comments, but added the situation was
slightly different for the women's race because their team element was not so
strong.
She added Arndt had demonstrated her professionalism by not interfering with the
battle for the Australian title once other riders caught her.
Had Arndt won, she would have received the gold medal and the national champion's
jersey would have gone to Corset.
Arndt clearly used the event more as a hard early-year training exercise and took
out the sprint and queen of the mountain categories.
South Australian Rachel Neylan was the first rider to bridge the gap to Arndt with
three laps left.
Corset then used an attack from Tibco team-mate Emma Mackie to also break clear and
she joined the two leaders on lap nine.
Corset made her winning move early in the last lap, just as O'Donnell joined them.
Neylan finished fourth, 42 seconds behind Corset.
Earlier on Saturday, 18-year-old Michael Hepburn won the 122km men's under-23 road
race.
Hepburn is another rising star in Australian cycling and last year broke the world
record for the 3,000m individual pursuit on the way to winning the event at the
junior world championships.
Hepburn finished three seconds clear of fellow Queenslander Malcolm Rudolph, while
ACT rider Michael Matthews made it a trifecta for the Jayco Skins team by finishing
third.
Hot conditions are forecast for Sunday's main event of the nationals, the elite
men's road race.