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The dozens of wind turbines scattered around the national time trial course are there for one reason and one reason only – wind.
And that wind has been out in gale force over the past couple of days, spinning the massive blades of the turbines faster than Chris Froome’s legs during an ascent of Mont Ventoux.
While reigning national time trial champion Luke Durbridge will go into the race of truth as a well-deserving favourite, the wind may prove just as challenging to beat as Orica-GreenEDGE’s rising star.
The bad news for Durbridge’s opponents though is that ‘Turbo’ has opened this year in the exact same fashion as he did last year, with a hard fought win on the gruelling, wind-swept Portarlington stage of the Bay Classics.
Turbo’s powerful display proves he has good early season form and he is deadly serious in defending his time trial title of last year.
Of course history shows he claimed the rare double of national time trial and road race champion in 2013, and while he can’t be discounted completely from road race calculations this year, his best chance comes in the race against the clock.
Durbridge faces tough opposition – the field is chock full of talent – although it remains to be seen if the early season conditioning of his rivals is as far advanced.
Every rider goes into the race with different goals for the year and this influences their level of preparation.
Be that as it may, when you put the likes of Durbridge, Damien Howson, Michael Hepburn and Rohan Dennis into the same event, you know that you are going to get some scintillating riding.
Howson, readying for his first full season with Orica-GreenEDGE, has achieved all that could possibly be achieved by a time trial specialist at under 23 level.
The youngster began last season by winning the national U23 time trial title and finished the year by winning the same event at the world championships. In between he found time to win the Oceania championship time trial as well!
While this will be his first hit out as an elite rider at the nationals, his win at the worlds was over a similar distance and the event should hold no fear for him.
Hepburn, yet another member of Orica-GreenEDGE’s armada, is also proficient against the clock and can often be found sweating it out in the team time trials, including his team’s world championship silver medal winning squad late in 2013.
A previous winner of the U23 national road race at Buninyong, Hepburn will be keeping the others honest as he cuts his way around the time trial course this Wednesday.
But perhaps the biggest challenger to Durbridge will be last year’s runner up Rohan Dennis.
Look up the phrase ‘poetry in motion’ in a dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Dennis next to the entry. Smooth and arrow-like on the bike, the young South Australian has the European pros looking over their shoulders.
He has a blistering time trial which he uses to great effect in stage races. His eighth place overall at the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine (including time spent in the yellow leader’s jersey) was built on the back of a time trial that announced his arrival as a force in world cycling.
The Garmin-Sharp rider finished second, only losing ground to world time trial champion Tony Martin, but was fast enough to relegate eventual Tour de France winner Chris Froome to third place.
He finished the year strongly as well, claiming the overall in the six stage Tour of Alberta.
Dennis is fast and improving all the time, but will he be fast enough to upset the rampaging Durbridge? Can he be the thorn in the all powerful Orica-GreenEDGE’s side?
It will be a fascinating contest and one worthy of travelling out to the tiny settlement of Burrumbeet to witness.
The 45 kilometre course, despite its isolation, is a good one.
The first 22 kilometres are relatively sedate, but once the road swings north and then east, it begins to climb steadily. Add a stiff breeze blowing across the mainly exposed paddocks (along with the odd stray sheep) and you have a route that is not to be taken lightly.
The parcours is well and truly entrenched within the bounds of the wind farm when it reaches its highest point at the 34 kilometre mark (including a lung busting seven percent ramp at about 31 kilometres), after which it is all down hill for a high speed finish at the start/finish line, just 10 kilometres further on.
It is a course for the strong men and the strongest of the strong at this stage appears to be Durbridge.
Of the women, who race over a shortened ‘out and back’ course of 28 kilometres, National Road Series winner Katrin Garfoot leads the long list of genuine contenders who have registered to start in the event.
The Roar’s own Tiffany Cromwell, Bridie O’Donnell and last year’s road race winner Gracie Elvin are among the big names set to ride but they will all need to be on their toes to beat the winner of the last three editions of this race – Queensland’s Shara Gillow.
For spectators wishing to make the most of the day, the best place to be positioned for the time trial is at the start/finish line (the Burrumbeet Hall) where you can keep track of the riders’ times and get unfettered views of some of the world’s greatest cyclists.
For mine, Durbridge to win the men’s event from Dennis with Howson third, while Garfoot will end Gillow’s stranglehold of the women’s event.
The action begins this Wednesday, with the U23 men at 10:30, the elite and U23 women at 12:00 and the men at 2:30.
I’ll also be tweeting live from the event @downundrcycling
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