Buchanan completes road triple in elite women's nationals

On Saturday, Waikato’s Rushlee Buchanan (UnitedHealthcare), who won her first time trial win on top of the New Zealand criterium title she won last month, completed the triple by winning the 117km women’s road race, which featured an initial 60km loop in the country near Taradale before returning for 4.5 laps of a 13km inner city course including the climb over Bluff Hill.
 

 

Georgia Williams (BePink LaClassica, Auckland) and Jo Kiesanowski (Team TIBCO, Canterbury) finished second and third respectively just one second each off Buchanan’s time.

“It’s so special and amazing to back it up and to now be a three-time national champion,” said the 27-year-old Olympic hopeful. “It is an honour to wear one national jersey but to be able to wear all three this year in road races is special and fantastic for my United Healthcare team. 

“It was a hard day and Jo and Georgia make it really hard. That was a top quality break.
“It was a hard course and windy out there so I had to be patient and pick my moment,” Buchanan continued. “Jo has won some big sprints around the world and I train every day with Georgia on the track and know what she had. I knew I had to lead it out and just stayed in the moment.”