PP ACADEMY BLOG | Martin-Wallace WorldTour debut

For each Summer of Cycling, Cycling Australia prepares endurance development racing teams for the Santos Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (CEGORR) including Race Torquay, and the Herald Sun Tour.  
 
The development opportunity allows athletes within Australia's High-Performance Network and National Road Series teams to contest UCI events within Australia.
 
Sunshine Coast teenager Alexandra Martin-Wallace is a member of the Australian Cycling Team’s Podium Potential Academy^ and in January, she switched from the track to the road when she lined up in the Team KordaMentha outfit for Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (CEGORR) including Race Torquay.
 
A Junior Track World Championship medallist in 2018, Martin-Wallace joined the Academy in the same year, made her elite World Cup debut in Hong Kong a few months later, and also took part in a winter road racing program in Belgium. 
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Martin-Wallace penned her thoughts on her week at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race below. 

Heading into Race Torquay and Cadels Road Race I was very excited but also nervous. They were going to be by far the biggest races I’ve lined up for in my career. 

Race Torquay was up first and it was a scorcher of a day. With temperatures up to 44 degrees, the whole team was trying to stay as cool as possible pre-race by stuffing ice down the fronts and backs of our jerseys. 

The course was eight laps of a 13.3km loop with a few small climbs. The heat was detrimental in our race, especially on the main climb which was also the feed zone. While lots of girls picked up water bottles others were attacking which strung out the field. The highlight of the race was Ruby coming second in the bunch kick and sixth overall. Unfortunately, our team captain Rachel crashed after the line when a heat-affected rider accidentally ran into the back of her. 

After lots of food and Netflix on the rest day, it was time for the Cadel Evans / Deakin University Great Ocean Road Race, the first Women’s World Tour race in the Southern Hemisphere. Geelong put on a good demonstration of typical Victorian weather going from scorching hot to freezing cold and windy.

The aim of the race was to protect Ruby as much as possible and the most crucial moments of the race was in the crosswinds and before the first climb. We were really happy with how well we rode as a team, staying together and positioning well, which was something we had been working on all summer.  

Unfortunately with about twenty kilometres to go there was a huge crash at the bottom of a descent (before the drag towards the final QOM) and Anya, Nicole and myself came down. Anya and I were lucky enough to get back up unscathed and finish the race. Nicole, unfortunately, crashed hard and was taken to hospital. Once again, just like Torquay, Ruby showed she’s one of the best, pulling off an incredible twelfth in her first race against the World Tour Professionals. 

Looking back on my week, it lived up to a lot of my expectations and I was pleasantly surprised with how I handled the hype of world tour racing. I was lucky enough to have some experienced girls around me and the incredible staff whose support I am very grateful to have. 

I’m keen to take what I’ve learnt to the Herald Sun Tour with ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast!

^ About the Podium Potential Academy - Launched in November 2018 with an inaugural class of thirteen athletes across both endurance and sprint disciplines, the PPA programme, which is supported and partly funded by Commonwealth Games Australia, focuses on the long term development of athletes orientated around success at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and through to the 2024 Olympic Games and beyond