Gillow grabs her first national title

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Shara Gllow upstaged her more established rivals winning the elite women's time trial today. The 23-year-old clocked 38:17 on the 27.1km course to win by 3 seconds over newcomer Taryn Heather and Ruth Corset. In what was a shock result, defending champion Amber Halliday finished over a minute behind the winner back in seventh place.

Gillow's father, David, represented Zimbabwe in the road race at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and the newly crowned national champion was pleased with her performance.

"I'm pretty happy with my ride today," Gillow said after the race. "I'm just happy to be an Australian champion."

"This is my first national title. I got a silver in the under-23 time trial in 2009 and it's a real honour to be a national time trial champion," Gillow added.

The cyclists started their time trial in heavy rain which stayed for the duration of the race. Ranked eighth and the best Australian in last year's world time trial in Geelong, Gillow adapted to the conditions best.

"I took the course a lot slower than I should have. I will have to work on that," Gillow added. "It was nice and wet out there."

"I haven't had much preparation. After the world's I had the off-season and then got back into it. I hope to get fit again for the European season and hopefully I can get better and better," Gillow described.

She will now take the green and gold jersey over to Europe and is thrilled to be able to show it off over there.

"I look forward to wearing the jersey in Europe. We do a few time trials over there so it will be great wearing it," she concluded.

New girl on the block

Little known Taryn Heather was a surprise second and nearly won in what was her first time trial. The twenty-eight year old is new to the sport after formerly being a middle distance runner. Injuries, however forced her to quit running and she took up cycling.

Coached by Ben Cook and Tim Decker the South Australian started with SASI in December in 2010 after attending a National Talent Identification session in Adelaide.

"I had no idea what to expect, I have been training and just came out and gave it my all...I just wanted to finish in this weather."

"At the moment I am still developing, so every day I am learning something new about cycling, so I just want to enjoy it and see where it goes. It is all really fast and overwhelming, but I love it," said Heather.

Lauren Kitchen - another gold medal

Youngster Lauren Kitchen topped off a brilliant week claiming yet another gold medal. She finished eighth overall, 1:15 behind Gillow to take the gold in the women's under 23 classification. Tasmania's Amy Cure took the silver medal with

South Australia's Carlee Taylor claiming bronze

The twenty-year old was victorious in the elite/under 23 criterium Thursday night and picked up a bronze medal in the under-23 road race on Saturday in what was the most consistent performance over the week.

"I still can't believe it," Kitchen said. "I hope it's a good start to the year for me and for Jayco AIS".

"It was a great championship for me. Hopefully I can bring this form with me into the next races, particularly the Tour Down Under criterium's next week."

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