IN YOUR FACE: Rushlee Buchanan will stick to her tried-and-true aggressive stance during the road race nationals in Napier from tomorrow. PHOTO/Pete Bruggemans
YOU can't go wrong with Rushlee Buchanan. That's because the New Zealand professional cyclist talks in the manner she rides.
The rider from Te Awamutu, who turns 28 on January 20, doesn't beat around the bush when she expresses herself on or off the road and track.
Effectively, what you see is what you get with Buchanan, who tends to wear her heart on her sleeve.
Sure, there are some trade secrets the Olympian likes to keep close to her chest once she engages in the intoxicating cacophony of the peloton, where heroes and villains emerge from a swag of support acts groomed and doomed to slavery, for the want of a better word.
However, it is safe to assume that once the Big Save Elite Road National Championship starts in Hawke's Bay tomorrow the gaggle of rival female riders will not need any briefing on what Buchanan is likely to conjure with fellow UnitedHealthcare teammate and defending champion Linda Villumsen.
"People know I'm known for my aggression and attacking tactics," she says before the time trials at Church Road Winery from 10am until 1.30pm tomorrow in Napier.
Like most of the other riders, Buchanan doesn't have the luxury of mapping out her plan of attack, as such, but that will no doubt evolve the very split second she scans the field.
"It's about reading the race to see if there are any opportunities. You can never plan it before but you try to see what the others' own little idea is," she says, impressing the need to adapt and "recharge one's batteries" throughout the arduous meandering maze.
She likes to believe the female peloton isn't a habitat for the shrinking violets but demanding as much, if not more, territorial nous than blokes in a bid to earn the right to breakaway to set a lightning pace.
"I hope all the other girls race hard and aggressively as we want to race the whole time to the finish line, because that's what we need in women's racing in New Zealand."
The elite women's road race will be run over 117km, including 4.5 loops of the inner-city course on Saturday, and the elite and under-23 men's race on Sunday will embrace 180km, incorporating 7.5 laps of a 13km stretch in the Napier CBD area over the Bluff Hill.
Buchanan's resume is enviable so when she says the field is "really good" it pays to take note.
She balances her optimism to win the road race with the animal instincts of a feisty pack, which will have its hackles up.
The Hamilton-born, who last week moved from her parents' (Viv and Don) home in Te Awamutu to Cambridge to boost her track racing profile, is a two-time national road race champion (2010 and 2014, both in Christchurch).
She married American professional rider Adrian Hegyvary (pronounced "hisvie") in 2014.
So how has that changed her outlook from a track and road racing perspective, let alone life?
"It's just better, He's a good training partner," he says of Hegyvary who hails from the same UnitedHealthcare stable although they met when he belonged to a different outfit.
From where Buchanan is sitting on her saddle, it scarcely matters whether she or Villumsen wins either the time trial or, more importantly, the gruelling road race.
But, to the uninitiated, her statement of intent can mistakenly be perceived as as a collaboration of contradiction, if her next assertion is anything to go by in ascertaining who will cross the line first if they have strived to be top dogs and the end beckons a several hundred metres away.
"We help each other but NOT FULLY."
So, akin to Formula 1 motor racing, will Buchanan let Villumsen retain her crown if they are the only two left standing near the finish line?
She qualifies, juxtaposing the team ethics in New Zealand races, where it revolves around a couple of riders, to those abroad where eight can comprise the collective.
"We do our own race and if the race doesn't pan out we do what we can because we know each other's strengths and weaknesses so a lot of things are left unsaid because they are very talented on the bike," she says, predicting a stern challenge from Tibco teammates Joanne Kiesanowski and Emily Collins.
Buchanan, who won bronze at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championship in the team pursuit, has a 4th and 5th (twice) placing at time trials in nationals.
But what makes her even deadlier is her knowledge of the Bay terrain, considering her numerous appearances here have yielded a rash of crowns from the junior ranks.
She echoes the sentiments of her male counterparts that the Napier circuit challenges will be refreshing and a change from the Christchurch one in the past five years, albeit the deviation from the Apley Rd circuit here.
"There's a lot more going on in the different roads in Napier so it'll be new and exciting for everyone," says the 2009 NZ criterium champion.
Buchanan reveals her primary goal is to make the cut to the Track World Champs in London in March although "national titles are always a career highlight, so any New Zealand champs is a good one".
Only four will make the cut so she reckons the successful riders also will book flights to the Rio Olympics later this year.
Georgia Williams (Auckland), defending NZ time trial champ Jaime Nielsen (Hamilton) will be here but Lauren Ellis (Ashburton) won't.
CHAMPS DETAILS
From the Big Save Elite Road National Championship in Hawke's Bay this week:
TIME TRIAL
Start and finish at Church Rd Winery, Taradale, tomorrow:
10am: Elite female 23.5km (one long loop).
10.40: U23 male 40km (one long loop, one short 17km loop).
11.40: Elite male 40km (one long loop, one short 17km loop).
13.30: Podium presentations.
ROAD RACES
Start/finish at Marine Pde, War Memorial Conference Centre on Saturday:
10.00: Women 117km - 55km rural loop (Puketapu) including 7km neutralised to Tamatea plus 4.5 loops of Napier Hill city circuit.
14.30: Podium presentations.
Start/finish at Marine Pde, War Memorial Conference Centre on Sunday:
9am: Under-23 & elite men's road race 180km - 80.5km rural loop (Puketapu) including 7km neutralised to Tamatea plus 7.5 loops of Napier Hill city circuit.
14.30: Podium presentations.