Bad luck on the final climb has taken Tully Schweitzer out of contention in the Junior Women’s Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships.
Schweitzer, pictured above, was caught behind a Great British rider who unclipped on the last cobbled hill, dropping her from the lead group.
Schweitzer and fellow Brisbane rider Neve Parslow fought back to salvage 13th and eighth place respectively for the ARA Australian Cycling Team in Rwanda.
The misfortune came at the end of a cagey 74-kilometre race that saw few concerted attacks; rather, the peloton was slowly whittled down over five nervous laps of the Kigali circuit.
Gianatti, Parslow and Schweitzer at the teams presentation. (Simon Wilkinson / SWpix.com)
Australia’s three riders – Schweitzer, Parslow and Hannah Gianatti – kept themselves in the main peloton for the great majority of the race. Schweitzer was the most active, often placing herself at the front and even driving the pace on the Cote de Kimihurura, the decisive cobbled climb that peaked just over a kilometre from the finish.
A late flurry of attacks came on the last lap, but a large group of around 20 riders still arrived together at the foot of the last ascent.
As the accelerations began, Schweitzer tagged herself on the back of the initial split when disaster struck – in front of her, the rider from Great Britain suddenly stopped and swerved with her foot pulled out of the pedals, leaving the Hamilton Wheelers rider with nowhere to go except to stop and unclip herself.
Hannah Gianatti fights her way up a climb. (Chris Auld / SWpix.com)
Schweitzer rallied to get herself started again, joining Parslow in the first chase group and digging deep to close the gap to the leaders, who had slowed in the final kilometres.
Despite their best efforts, the chasers were unable to return to the front of the race, with Parslow sprinting strongly to a top-10 result just behind the winner from Spain.
Results – Junior Women Road Race
🥇 Paula Ostiz Taco (ESP) 2:09:19
🥈 Chantal Pegolo (ITA) +0
🥉 Anja Grossman (SUI) +0
8. Neve Parslow (AUS) +3
13. Tully Schweitzer (AUS) +6
26. Hannah Gianatti (AUS) +1:42
Feature photo: Alex Whitehead / SWpix.com