Frain urges Wilson-Haffenden to be patient as elite career begins

A former nationals winner has urged Tasmania’s junior world champion Felicity Wilson-Haffenden to “be kind to herself” and be patient when her elite career begins at this week’s Tour Down Under.

Felicity Wilson-Haffenden is preparing to compete in this week’s Tour Down Under. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Leading Tasmania cyclist Nicole Frain has urged emerging young gun Felicity Wilson-Haffenden to remain patient and “be kind to herself” as she prepares for her first WorldTour outing.

After wearing the kit of her new team Lidl-Trek for the first time at last week’s Road Nationals, the Hobart 18-year-old will be part of the US outfit’s Tour Down Under campaign in Adelaide beginning Friday.

Wilson-Haffenden burst onto the scene by winning dual gold in juniors at last year’s Road Nationals, before being crowned world junior time trial champion at Scotland in August.

Frain, who won the national road race title in 2022, spoke to Wilson-Haffenden at Ballarat last week to be patient and let her burgeoning career in Europe evolve.

“I said to her a few times to stay calm and be with your team, because it was her first elite nationals,” Frain said.

“She’s gone into a big team and has had awesome results this year. Her expectations would naturally be quite high, and that’s her competitive nature as well.

“I just hope she is kind to herself, let’s herself settle into Europe and her new team and avoid putting too much pressure on herself.

“I think she’ll have a good career, she’s got to just let it unfold a little bit. She’s a good egg.”

Wilson-Haffenden indicated she’s ready to take on that team-oriented mentality before last week’s Road Nationals.

Nicole Frain after winning the national road championship in 2022. (Photo by Con Chronis/Getty Images)

“When the team works for one person and get up for the win, the vibe is a million times better than if you ride for yourself and finish fourth, eighth and ninth,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“That’s one of the beauties of the sport, if I could contribute to a teammate winning it’d top the under-23 title, for sure.”

Frain will be one of a handful of Tasmanian women competing at the Tour Down Under.

She knows first-hand what it feels like for a team to work together to achieve the ultimate result.

“It (team mentality) can pay off so well if you get that result, and you feel like you were a big part of that result,” Frain said.

“It feels like a win if the team environment’s good. When that happens you don’t mind working for your team.

“You see that when Ruby (Roseman-Gannon, Sunday’s national road race winner) finishes and everyone (in the team) is so happy because they contributed to that.

“Ruby can’t do that without her team. People look at it and think only one person wins, but even when I won (in 2022) the team around me helped me win.

“It’s super good when you get to thank your teammates after they potentially sacrifice their results for yours, and trust that you can pull it off.”

Fellow Tasmanian Georgia Baker was a major contributor to Roseman-Gannon winning the national title. She will be part of Liv-Alul-Jayco’s campaign in Adelaide, the first event of the UCI World Tour.

Anya Louw will ride for Belgian team AG Insurance-Soudal, while Frain will ride for the ARA Australian Cycling Team.

The first women’s stage is a 93.9km trek on Friday, while the men get underway on Saturday.