A new titan emerges in Michael Hepburn

The great thing about national titles is that the favourites don’t always win.

Whether it is the added pressure of a prize jersey being at stake, a mishap on the road, adverse weather conditions or just a plain old lack of athletic conditioning, upsets never seem to be too far away.

And while the opening chapter to this year’s national time trial championship held at Burrumbeet yesterday may well have been titled ‘The Clash of the Titans’, its epilogue would surely be more along the lines of ‘How the Mighty have Fallen’.

First we saw Shara Gillow, winner of the last three national time trial championships, fail to take a fourth with Felicity Wardlaw producing a scorching ride to claim victory by 32 seconds in a closely fought women’s event which saw the top five riders all finish within a minute of each other with sixth place at 1:02!

In the men’s event, reigning champion Luke Durbridge was chasing his third successive title. His preparation had been superb and his form outstanding. Just like last year he won the tough Portarlington stage of the Bay Crits as a warm up and looked set to once again take the nationals by storm.

A tickle in the throat a few days ago turned out to be just that and he looked destined to write his name into the record books for a third time.

In contrast Queensland’s Michael Hepburn was not feeling as fresh. He had also raced at the Bay Crits but found the going harder.

“Since the Bay Crits I’ve been a little bit tired,” he said after his time trial ride, “and a little bit flat on the bike.”

Tired and flat eh?

Well guess what Michael, it didn’t show!

Not only did Hepburn pip ‘Turbo Durbo’ by 11 seconds as he flashed beneath the finishing gantry, he did so after being half a minute down midway around the course.

Damien Howson came in third at 2:06 to complete an Orica-GreenEDGE trifecta.

Realistically, and with no disrespect to the other competitors, there were only four riders with realistic chances of claiming the time trial title. The Titans – so to speak – were Durbridge, Hepburn and Howson, all from Orica-GreenEDGE and Garmin-Sharp’s Rohan Dennis.

Many thought that the biggest threat to Durbridge’s reign as time title champion would come from Dennis.

The young South Australian is as sleek as they come and a huge talent that is yet to be fully revealed, but when he punctured and then later was blown from his bike by a gust of wind, his race was over.

It was a disappointing end for Dennis and one that left the crowd lamenting for a moment, but only for a moment, as Hepburn soon took up the slack. His blistering second half of the race left Durbridge with the almost impossible task of having to cover the last two kilometres in under two minutes if he were to win.

He couldn’t, not that he knew what the time difference was anyway.

Speaking after the race he said –

“I only got one time check out there. I thought it was pretty poor with the amount of time checks out on the road. We needed a little bit more information. But that’s all right, I knew I was 30 seconds up on Heppy, but he obviously closed in. I had no idea coming to the line where he was. But you know, that’s time trialling, you have to go as hard as you can to the line obviously. I was going as hard I as can, I wasn’t sitting back on my laurels.”

Though he sung the praises of his Orica-GreenEDGE teammate, Durbridge was obviously disappointed. Although gracious in defeat, that disappointment came through in his body language and the bright, bubbly personality that shone through during last year’s press conference was missing.

“I went as hard as I could but full credit to Hepburn. He’s a great time triallist, back in U23 we were always one or two seconds apart during the season so good on him. I’m really proud of the guy. He’s one of my best friends so all I can be is happy for him.

“I really wanted to win to get the three (titles in a row) but it was not to be if you haven’t got the legs on the day so full credit to Michael Hepburn. I wish him the best.”

When asked if there was anything he could have done differently to reverse the result Durbridge answered –

“No. I had good form. I can’t really question anything. I gave it as hard as I can out there so that’s all I can do. I’ll go back and have a look at what went wrong and analyse a few of the files and see where I went wrong and see if I can improve on that. But its all just savour the moment, savour how much this hurts and I’ll be back.

“I think I still had a good ride. I’ve still got to have a look. I don’t think the power was up around near where it needed to be but it was a fast course so I thought I gave it my everything and I thought my everything was going to be enough today but it wasn’t. I’m obviously happy with my ride. I don’t think it is a question that I had a terrible ride because I don’t think I did. There was only 10 or 11 seconds in between us. Good ride by him!”

So, just how does one tired and flat rider like Michael Hepburn make up thirty seconds over the final 20 kilometres of a race against one of the strongest cyclists going around?

Well, it turns out he wasn’t completely flat.

“This morning on the ergo I could feel the legs coming around. I was feeling a bit better on the bike,” he said afterwards at the press conference.

“I had one time check out there, I think I was about 30 seconds down on Luke and I know that he tends to go out a little bit faster than I do and I can sometimes come home a bit stronger. So I just tried to keep on the power and to be honest I felt really good out there. I was happy….I tried to use the long straight sections to try to get down and get aero and chase the guys in front of me.

“I counted about eight or nine (who I passed). The first guy was Will Clarke, he was my one minute man, I knew he’d be doing a decent ride so I passed him after about 20 kilometres and at that point it does motivate you, thinking I must be making some good ground. And then there was another guy a couple of minutes later.”

And then another, and another, and another. You get the picture.

“The more guys you catch the better…” he continued.

Indeed! Seemed to work on the day anyway!

Take a bow, Michael Hepburn, you are Australia’s newest Titan!

The nationals continue this afternoon with the criterium championships being held in Sturt St, Ballarat.

U23 men are at 4:30 (30 laps – 33 km)
Elite and U23 women are at 5:30 (30 laps – 33 km)
Elite men are at 7:30 (40 laps – 44 km)

Follow me on twitter live from the event @downundrcycling