JESSIE MacLean can surely only have better fortune in the elite women’s MARS Cycling Australia Road National Championships road race at Buninyong today.
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MacLean from Canberra has been part of ORICA-GreenEDGE since it inception three years ago, sharing in many team successes despite a rough 2013.
Head knocks and sick days did not make it easy, but she is hopeful the new year will mean better fortune.
“I’m confident I’ll be able to get up there and do well in the in the criterium and road race,” the Ballarat-born MacLean said.
“My form is better than last year, when I got sick and landed on my head.”
Well, it did not start out as she would like in the criterium on Thursday night.
MacLean was involved in a multi-rider fall 150m from the finish.
She did get back in the saddle, crossing the line more than three minutes down.
Hopefully she can put thing back on track in the road race.
“I’d really like to qualify for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
“The girls that went to the Olympics will try out and there’s only six spots,” the 28-year-old said.
In relation to today’s event, MacLean said ORICA-GreenEDGE had a couple of good climbers and opportunists which she was confident would do well.
MacLean was introduced to cycling through a talent identification program in 2000 when she was playing volleyball for the ACT.
She said her love of cycling spawned from there.
“It’s dynamic, it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s an incredibly hard and difficult sport but it is such a rewarding sport in that respect. And I get to travel and see the world.”