The video you see above was shot from the Roxsolt team car during the women’s race at the recent Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Roxsolt was team car #2 which meant it was the second car in the long line of team cars, directly behind Orica-AIS and the chief commissaire.
Roxsolt went into the race with just four riders — Carlee Taylor, Jo Hogan, Tiff Cromwell and Lucy Martin — compared to the five riders that many other teams had.
The race
A big crash in the opening kilometres and some aggressive riding in the crosswinds from the likes of Orica-AIS saw the race split apart early. Around 25 riders, approximately one-third of the peloton, survived the initial selection which happened inside the first 20km of racing.
Roxsolt’s Jo Hogan missed the split and would eventually finish 11 minutes down. As you’ll see in the video above, Lucy Martin lost contact with the peloton a short time later and despite spending some time trying to catch back on, she too succumbed and eventually finished 15 minutes back.
Tiff Cromwell was dropped from the lead group on the run-in to Geelong but fought her way towards the front to finish ninth: the team’s best result. Carlee Taylor was right in the mix until the penultimate climb at which point she faded to finish 11th. Rachel Neylan (Building Champions Squad) won the race after attacking solo on the same climb that Carlee Taylor was dropped on.
In the convoy
The Roxsolt team car sat right behind the lead group for virtually the entire day, looking after the team’s riders that were up the front. Roxsolt riders behind the lead group that needed support had to rely on neutral service.
Driving the Roxsolt car was Tristan Wright from Seight Custom Clothing while Roxsolt’s director sportif Kelvin Rundle was in the back seat playing mechanic.
Thanks to Tristan and Kelvin for having us along for the ride!