Annette Edmondson: Road warrior

SA’s Annette Edmondson battled illness and the effects of a crash to line up for the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under - so her win on Stage 1 is a sweet victory.

Annette Edmondson has recovered from illness and a crash to race in Adelaide at the Women’s Tour Down Under Photo: Sarah Reed

ANNETTE Edmondson has won a battle with ill health to return to professional racing - and she’s capped off her return with victory in Stage 1 of the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under - hot on the heels of her brother Alex’s win at the National Championships.

The Adelaide superstar had been training a long way from home – 16,200km to be precise, in Girona, 100km north of Barcelona.

The Catalonian town with its medieval stone buildings is well positioned, allowing professional riders to quickly travel to key races all over Europe, while the nearby mountains meet the needs of the most punishing training schedules.

“There are lots of hills there, flat rides, it has a good climate, everything is really cheap and there are over 200 cyclists,” Edmondson says.

“We have a professional women riders group chat there, so if people have got long rides and want company they can write ‘Anyone else got four and a half hours to do tomorrow and want to meet at this time?’ You’re never alone in Girona.”

Despite a 2016 that saw Edmondson go into the Rio Olympics as a dual world champion track cyclist from the year before and leave without medals, her 2017 professional season with pro team Wiggle High5 was a standout.

Last year, Edmondson scored her first European pro race victory since 2013 and took the prologue win and third overall in the BeNe Ladies Tour in Belgium.

But in September she had an inkling that something was wrong. She grew frustrated with her form and a diagnosis revealed hypothyroidism. Edmondson reluctantly said goodbye to Girona and flew back to Adelaide in October. That she can say she’s feeling good today is astounding.

“My health issue lasted from September till November, so I had to work out what was going on and take a bit of time off,” she says.

By December, Edmondson had won her health battle. She trained hard – even skipping celebrating her 26th birthday with friends on December 12 – and paired up with National Track Cycling teammate Alex Manly on December 16 to race in the National Madison Championships in Melbourne.

Edmondson was pleased to find that her form was back and the duo were in the hunt for gold. They were taking it in turns to sling each other into the race on the steeply banked track when a mistimed hand-sling saw both Manly and Edmondson crash. Bruised and bloodied they both remounted and still made the podium to claim silver.

“We went down hard at about 60km/h on to the inside of the track,” Edmondson says. “The day after the crash we raced the Shimano SuperCrit (street race in Port Melbourne). I didn’t feel too bad, but then things got a lot worse as things started to stiffen up.

“Sometimes you do have to take a step back and let the body heal – and realise that you aren’t superhuman. It took a bit longer than I was expecting, but now I’m feeling good.”

For Edmondson a good Tour Down Under is just one of many specific targets she needs to meet on her journey to Tokyo 2020, and in recent months she’s shown that nothing is going to stop her hitting those goals.

Illness cured and bandages off, the 2016 WTDU stage winner was talking of a stage victory before the evnt began.

“The Tour Down Under is an interesting race in terms of seeing where everyone’s at,” Edmondson says of the four-day, 385km event that takes in the Barossa, Murray Mallee, Adelaide Hills and the east parklands.

“A lot of riders don’t want to start training too hard early in the year because they don’t want to burn out later in the season – and that’s where the advantage is for the track riders. We’ve been training hard, so while I do feel like I’m on the back foot, that still means I could be ahead of some of the road riders.”

Over the past decade the Women’s Tour Down Under, has developed from a curtain-raiser street race to a UCI 2.1-rated event – the second highest international ranking – raced on a unique course from January 11-14, five days before the men’s race starts.

“I live in the Hills and I started cycling when I was 12, so I used to watch the Tour Down Under come through near our house. There wasn’t a TDU for women, but it was like ‘That’s just the way it is’. Then some movers and shakers in SA decided they wanted to start doing something for women.

“In 2011, they put on two crits. I was 19 when I rode them.” (Edmondson humbly omits to mention that she took second place and first place over the two days).

“It’s exciting to see the race develop from year to year. It’s been going up and up (in the UCI rankings) each year and hopefully one year we can have it as a UCI WorldTour event – the equivalent of the men’s. It’s incredible.”

So is Edmondson’s return to form. Expect to see her at the pointy end of the race – especially on Stages 1 and 4. And keep following this South Aussie dynamo’s progress even after the TDU is done.

“I’ll be racing Tour Down Under, the Herald Sun Tour and Cadel’s race (the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race) with Wiggle, and after that I’ll go straight into the track nationals at the end of the month and then on it’ll be about focusing on the track and going fast for the Commonwealth Games in April.”

The Santos Women’s Tour Down Under, January 11-14, tourdownunder.com.au

Quick quiz with Annette Edmondson

What’s your favourite city? I have to go for Adelaide. It’s nice, it’s quiet, it’s got everything you need and it’s home – filled with lots of people who are important to me.

Favourite food? Roast lamb

Favourite band? I like The Beautiful Girls. The main singer Mat McHugh has gone solo, but they are a small Australian band playing easy-listening music and it’s really good.

Who’s the rider you most admire? Marianne Vos – she’s so inspiring. It doesn’t matter if she’s riding a club race or the World Championships, she wants to win it, yet she has time for anyone – club rider or world champion. I respect that.

Have you got a secret skill? Most people probably don’t know that I’m fluent in Indonesian. I did it till Year 12 because I thought it was so nice to learn about different cultures. I’ve been to Indonesia a few times and been able to converse with the locals which is also really cool.

What’s the race you most want to win? An Olympic gold, probably in the team pursuit. An Olympic Games gold medal would be a dream come true.