A wildcard entry into her debut National Road Championships has provided Pip Ash with a powerful slingshot into the biggest year of her young cycling career.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The champion athlete - who took up cycling two years ago upon ending her celebrated hockey career - will contest her debut National Road Series race, for her first-ever team, Dhuez Racing, at the Tour de Brisbane in April.
The 32-year-old applied for a wildcard for the National Road Championships, which commence in Ballarat on Wednesday, because she had not qualified via the normal route: the NRS.
Read more:
Ash has come off a breakthrough year for her in the sport, 18 months after she started road racing.
In July, she won the country championship at the NSW Country and Metropolitan Road Championships at Penrith. In September, she won the road race for her age group at the NSW Masters Road Championships.
Her dramatic cycling ascent was obviously too impressive to be dismissed when Cycling Australia assessed wildcard applicants for the Road Nats.
"I'm honestly just going down there to get some experience ...
- Pip Ash
At the championships she will compete in the elite women's road race on Sunday - her expectations harnessed: "I'm honestly just going down there to get some experience, really, and learn from the best of the best."
Ash is "nervous and excited" about her biggest test to date, as she looks to take her cycling to another level in 2020 - the social side of the sport she slipped so comfortably into post-hockey giving way to a competitive spirit that needs serious sustenance.
The road race on Sunday will be held on a tough 104-kilometre course that Ash described as "quite lumpy".
"I'm definitely not built to be a climber, that's for sure," she said. "But as I said, I'm just looking to broaden my experience. And if I can get one lap under my belt, great, and if I can complete the nine, even better."
