mmg.com.au

The north-east has a new national champion, with Benalla’s Felicity Wardlaw taking out the Women’s Masters Cycling Championships last week at Goulburn in NSW.

The championships consisted of three events — a time trial, criterium and road race — with Wardlaw taking out two gold medals and a silver to clinch the title.

Wardlaw powered through the challenging 22.6km time trial in 34 minutes, averaging a blistering 39.39km/hour.

The time trial event is known as the ‘‘race of truth’’ — where riders ride against the clock, and the rider who covers the course in the fastest time wins.

In the criterium event, a fall mid-race could not stop Wardlaw from taking home the win in a desperate fight for the line, in which victory was hers by the narrowest of margins.

The road race saw a number of breakaways and produced another tight finish, and the result came down to a sprint to the line. This time Wardlaw had to be content with second place, missing the gold medal by half a wheel.

Wardlaw said she was happy with her performance overall.

‘‘I didn’t get the trifecta but I’m stoked about the result.

‘‘My main focus was to race and win the individual time trial. The other races provided for some good racing experience, with any wins being a bonus.’’

Racing in national events isn’t new to Wardlaw, who earlier this year finished second in the national 24-hour solo mountain bike championships in Canberra.

Since then Wardlaw has taken to road cycling and is racing with the Bicycle Superstore/TORQ Women’s Road Team in the Subaru National Road Series. The team will also race in the Tour of Bright in December.

These results come on the back of hours of dedicated training while still being able to maintain a full-time job with the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Wardlaw is trained by Mark Fenner.