Richards shows her mettle: Orange ironwoman wins national time trial

You know the one, the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, an event, by anyone’s measure, best described as an endurance battle thanks to the 3.8 kilometre swim, 180km bicycle ride and marathon, 42.2km run competitors put themselves through, willingly we might add.

So, last weekend, when Richards was faced with the 20km time trial at the Cycling Australia Masters Time Trial National Championships at Pottsville, in the Tweed Valley, she had no idea what to expect, let alone hold any ambition of eventually claiming a place on the podium.

What she finished with was a national title. “I didn’t expect that,” Richards said, edging Victoria Veitch (South Australia) and Nikolina Orlic (Queensland) for the major placings.

“Everything I’ve been training for has been endurance stuff. And when we headed out for the ride I felt terrible.

“There was a head wind for the first five kilometres and then cross winds the rest of the way. I felt better as the ride went on but never did I think I’d done well enough to win. I didn’t even check the results.

“I didn’t think I’d win.”

Staggeringly, Richards averaged 38.2km/h on the bike during here 20km time trial, bettering 186 other competitors for top place on the podium she never expected to even see.

In an out-and-back course, all competitors pushed into a strong 30-40km/h headwind going out with intermittent gusty showers, with Richards dubbing the ride a “tough race at a tough time in training” leading up to the World Ironman Championships in less than two weeks.

It’s hard to argue Richards isn’t in the form of her life.

“Two weeks ago I’d just completed the Murwillumbah triathlon, and with all of the professionals there I still came away with the fastest bike leg, so I got a good confidence booster out of that,” she added, before thanking coach Dan Benton and the work of the Barnyards as well.

Fellow Orange Cycling Club member, Charlie Gascoyne, also competed finishing sixth in one of the most competitive divisions on the day only 45 seconds behind the winner while averaging 43km/h