FORMER world rowing champion Amber Halliday confirmed her place among Australia's cycling elite by capturing the national time trial title at Buninyong yesterday.Halliday, from South Australia, edged out past champion Brodie O'Donnell by just four seconds in the Scody Australian Open Road Cycling Championships.Another SA rider, Carly Light, was third.Halliday, who averaged 41.02kmh, made the switch to cycling after the 2008 Beijing Olympics - looking to erase the disappointment of the Games.After finishing fourth at the Athens Olympics, she was eighth in the lightweight double scull at Beijing.Despite missing out on Olympic gold, Halliday was a four-time world rowing champion, with four senior titles and one in under-23 ranks.Halliday, who was fourth on debut in the nationals last year, said she had a much better idea what was going on this time.She said the switch to cycling was a natural transition for rowers, given the amount of time rowers spent cross-training on bikes.Halliday said she had also moved into cycling to help her cope with life without top-level rowing.The 30-year-old said she had no expectations about where cycling might take her."I'm just taking it one race at a time," she explained."I just want to do it to the best of my ability."However, Halliday admitted she might now have to re-assess her goals.She said she would be crazy not to go for a ride in the time trial at the world championships in Geelong later this year, given her championship win and that this was the discipline she had specifically chosen.Last year's time-trial silver medallist and pre-race favourite, Alexis Rhodes, had to retire after getting two punctures early in her ride. Adding insult to injury, race judges fined her $100 for her reaction to the misfortune. "I may have had a bit of a dummy-spit .th.th. there was a bit of bike throwing and a bit of a tantrum, but I'm over it now," Rhodes said with a wry smile. Veteran and Olympic gold medallist Kathy Watt was a non-starter.Josephine Tomic, of WA, took out her second consecutive women's under-23 time trial championship