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Chloe Moran has changed focus in 2016 as she targets the road
and selection for the Junior Road World Championships in
Qatar. Best known for her success on the track including
claiming a silver medal in 2015 in the team pursuit at the
Junior World Championships, Moran missed selection for the
team in 2016.
Despite the set back and limited road preparation Moran headed
to Bendigo for the Oceania Championships hoping to produce a
strong result in the time trial and attract the eye of
selectors. While she narrowly missed the win in the time trial
by just two seconds, Moran claimed the road race title the
following day with a dominant sprint from a five-rider break.
With few junior races to stake her claim on a spot for the
World Championships Moran has the upcoming Mersey Valley Tour,
April 29 - May 1 and the Under 19 Road National Championships
1-3 July as her primary targets.
Quick turn around from Track Nationals what was your
preparation like and what were your goals for the Oceania
Championships?
After taking a short break after Track Nationals I had very
limited time to prepare for the Oceania Championships and
spent the few weeks I had getting in some good kilometres in
my legs. Coming out of track season I knew my road base
definitely needed to be built up more, so I went into the
event not expecting much, just aiming to do my best and get an
idea of where my form was at the early stages of the road
season. I was still hoping for a strong result in the TT as I
thought I was more suited to this type of course but I was
unsure of how I would fair in the road race. Achieving the
results I did was definitely an unexpected surprise so I was
very pleased.
How did you find the course for the time trial?
The time trial course was undulating but not too hilly and
quite exposed to the wind. I think the strength needed in the
wind and up some of the smaller punchy undulations was a
course that suited me fairly well.
What did it mean to claim time trial silver at the
Oceania Championships? Were less than 2 seconds off gold is it
disappointing to come so close and just miss out?
Being such a close race you're always going to have in the
back of your mind the question of where you could have made up
those couple of seconds however I was still very happy to
claim the silver. It was gratifying to know that the hard work
I had put in placed me in one of the top contenders.
Heading in to the road race after silver in the time
trial did your goals change for the road race?
Heading into the road race with a medal under my belt
definitely gave me a bit more confidence in terms of knowing
that my endurance was going strong. I still had some
reservations about this hillier course due to not having a
decent amount of road training. However my goals were to race
a smart race, get into strong moves and just aim for the best
result I could produce on the day.
Part of a five rider break that escaped and went to
the finish how did the race play out for you and how were you
feeling as you approached the finish for the sprint?
A couple of riders and I put some pressure on going up one of
the bergs earlier on in the race which was enough to create a
split in the bunch. We had to work fairly hard to form a
decent break however once we found a good rhythm with the five
of us swapping turns we were able to increase the gap to a
good distance. The break continued to work evenly for the next
50km or so and it came down to a sprint finish between the
five of us. I was unsure how my sprint would fair but
approaching the finish my main concern was to not jump the gun
too early. I managed to time my sprint fairly well and hold
off for the win, which was quite a surprise for me, as I do
not typically suit a sprint finish.
What does it mean to be under 19 Oceania Champion in
the road race?
It's certainly amongst my top achievements to be the Oceania
Champion. I was pretty happy that I could produce a solid
result on both days of racing. It's still so early on in the
season so I definitely have other goals coming up but it has
put some confidence into me heading into the road season.
After missing selection for Junior Track World
Championships has taking gold and silver allowed you to make
up for that disappointment?
Missing selection for Junior Track Worlds was a bit of a
disappointment however I feel this has now opened the
opportunity for me to get much needed experience on the road,
which I missed a lot of last year due to illness and focusing
on track. I think it will be very beneficial for my
development to get a more holistic view of cycling, in terms
of gaining more of an understanding of both the road and
track. Coming away with the medals at Oceania Championships
just gave me extra motivation to put good, hard work into my
road training to hopefully have other successes later in the
year.
What are your goals for 2016? Going to focus more on
the road this year? Potentially looking at Junior Road Worlds?
The next main races coming up for me are Mersey Valley Tour
and Road Nationals. As my focus has now shifted to road for
this season I do have Junior Road Worlds as an aspiration in
the back of my mind, however I know there is a lot of hard
work to be put in to be able to attain a spot on the team and
there are also many other strong competitors with the same
aim. I am just focusing on getting as much experience as I can
throughout the season and whatever successes come from that
will just be icing on the cake. |
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