Cycling: Dad's body lingo clue for track queen

TIME TRIAL TRIO: Winner Rushlee Buchanan (centre) with runner-up Jaime Nielsen (left) and Sharlotte Lucas third. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

When it comes to time trials it must feel like opening up a delayed Christmas gift caught up in the mail for the winners.

So when Rushlee Buchanan came to the finish line it was the body language of her father, Don, that gave her an inkling that she was in the gold medal hunt during the Big Save Elite Road National Championship in Napier yesterday.

"I had no idea the whole way until I came across the line and my dad was standing like 100m before the finish so I could tell from his body language that I was quite close but ... ," said the Waikato rider of the Te Awamutu builder who was among a smattering of fans lining the Church Road Winery roads in Taradale.

Buchanan, who turns 28 on January 20, said she didn't have time to dwell on things in time trials after the Olympian pipped fellow Rio Olympics track contender Jaime Nielsen, also of Waikato.

"It's just all you so you have to make the most of it and that was very, very close so you go back and think about where you could have made up one or two seconds but I left it all out there and the course was good for me."

The 23.5km women's course suited her technically and so did the gusty northwesterlies which demanded constant mental application, especially around corners - unlike the straight course in Christchurch.

"It's the first time trial [win] for me so it was pretty special to be able to get the No 3," Buchanan said after adding the short discipline to her previous national criterium and road-race crowns.

However, the two-time (2010, 2014) national road-race champ was not preoccupied with backing the time-trial bragging rights with a road-race victory today in the women's elite 117km grind, after her UnitedHealthcare teammate and defending champion Linda Villumsen withdrew this week.

"That's what we do all year so for me it's better to just smash it out next day rather than go down and then have to come back up," she said, emphasising there were only 10 of them in the field yesterday but there will be 30 today with a lot more fresh legs.

She saw the time trials as a "good hit up" in soothing the nerves a little and getting the legs going before the road race.

"We'll see what we've got left in the legs for tomorrow," a beaming Rushlee said after collecting her medal on the podium.

It was a false start for Buchanan and Marlborough's Georgia Cattrick in yesterday's time-trial when marshals pointed them in the wrong direction at the first turn off but she kept cool.

"It was a mishap but in the moment you just have to stay calm, conserving your energy levels and refocusing on starting again so you can turn everything to your advantage to turn things around."

She will proudly wear her silver fern jersey at every time trial now, including during her stint to the United States in April.

"It's definitely an honour and something I've never had."

Nielsen, saluting a fantastic course, said it would have been nice to nail a treble but it came down to a couple of seconds.

"[Napier] has a little bit more texture and is a lot more fun because you're not just sitting there thinking about how much you're hurting but what's coming up on the course next," said the 30-year-old, mindful of hindsight but aware she came in quite strongly so perhaps she could have done a little more in between.

"Everyone can look back at their race and say they could have done things differently."