Tour De Snowy Attracts World Champs
Illawarra Mercury
Friday March 2, 2001
World road champion Zinaida Stahurskala and world time-trial champion Mari Holden will be among the top women cyclists who will line up in Cooma for the start of the fourth internationally acclaimed Tour de Snowy tomorrow.
Fourteen nations will be represented in the gruelling five-day event, to be followed by the World Cup in Canberra on March 10, and the national road championship on March 11.
The five-day race starts with a 30km criterium before heading to Jindabyne, 61km away.
The cyclists then head to Thredbo, and after the 37km road stage, undertake eight laps of a 4.4km circuit of Thredbo village including a tough climb up Banjo Drive.
The third day the cyclists race from Thredbo to Khancoban along the new Alpine Way.
After climbing Dead Horse Gap to 1582m, the cyclists descend for more than 15km to just 300m above sea level before climbing more than 700m and then descend into Khancoban.
The deciding factor of the race has always been the longest stage - 111km from Khancoban to Cabramurra - and it will be no different this year.
The riders start from Khancoban at around 400m and climb for the first 80km to 1000m before descending to 400m and then having to climb past Tumut power station and on to Cabramurra, the highest village in Australia.
The final day the cyclists will race 69km from Tumbarumba to Tumut.
The race is wide open with more than 20 cyclists having real chances of overall victory.
Australia's Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anna Millward (nee-Wilson) , with two fourths in Olympic Games, is keen to regain her world's number one ranking and remains Australia's best chance of winning.
Millward will be racing for the Saturn team along with Australian time trial champion Kristy Scrymgeour.
Triathlete Emma Carney lines up with a polished VIS (Victoria Institute of Sport) Jayco team which includes 1997 world championship silver medallist Elizabeth Tadich.
© 2001 Illawarra Mercury
