SALLY ROBBINS did not finish the women's road race at the Australian open championships yesterday after she fell so far behind the lead riders she was ordered out. But the former Olympic rower, who is intent on re-inventing her sporting career and making the 2012 Games, still left Ballarat optimistic about her outing on the bike.
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A commissaire pulled Robbins and about six other riders out of the mostly uphill 102-kilometre trek around Mt Buninyong after they had completed six of 10 laps and fallen more than 11 minutes behind the leading bunch.
In her first attempt at an elite road race since taking up cycling seriously only months ago, Robbins first dropped off the peloton during lap four.
"It was my goal to finish the race, so it was a bit disappointing that I wasn't allowed to finish," Robbins told The Sun-Herald afterwards. "But I'm happy with how I went. I wasn't expecting to be up with the lead group, so I'm happy with how I performed and hopefully I can improve on that from here on."
The 27-year-old finished 22nd in a field of 27 cyclists in the women's time trial on Wednesday - more than five minutes slower than winner Carla Ryan, who also took out the road race yesterday - but is probably better suited to the shorter distances on the road.
Robbins said the next step was to sit down with her Western Australian Institute of Sport coaches who oversaw her Plan B team at the Australian championships and plan for the next 12 months.
"It's daunting to come into a field of really talented athletes and be a known name but not have the skills and the tactics and the knowledge of bike racing," Robbins said.
"Today was really, really tough, as was the time trial, but I did my best out there and I'm looking forward to a bit more time on the bike and we'll see how it goes.
"I love cycling and it's really good for me at the moment. Who knows, I've had a few offers from people here and there about what they think I would be good at and what I should do."
Though widely branded a failure for her performance at the 2004 Olympics when she was overcome by exhaustion in the final of the women's eight and stopped rowing, Robbins has not ruled out a return to her old sport.
