Lying third going into Sunday’s Hell of the South 108km women’s race Christie (Velo Project) needed to finish in the top five to have a chance of overall series victory.
Women’s series leader Kate McIlroy was absent due to work commitments and her Lightworkx Development teammate Amy Hollamby who was lying second was ill, resulted in her not racing on Sunday and losing her chance to ride for the series title.
Hollamby, who had been in Bali last week for a work-related conference opted not to race after becoming unwell in Saturday’s race with a heart rate that that was very high even when she wasn’t exerting herself. It was won by Hannah Bayard.
With a serious chance of overall series success Velo Project women’s team manager Andrew Williams was very pleased with the way Christie and the team rode. “It’s a great result for the team and Henrietta,” he said.
“As a team we’ve worked really hard together through the series to help put Henrietta in the position she was in, so it was great to see her and the team deliver today.”
The women’s Hell of the South was won by Christie’s Velo Project teammate Elyse Fraser with an impressive solo ride, going alone early on and finishing almost 5min ahead of second placed Jojo Bauer (Cycle Surgery Bartrams) in the time of 3hr 3min.
Christie won the bunch sprint to claim third and claim the overall series to add to her under-19 series jersey, coming home 5min after Bauer.
McIlroy held onto her series jersey while Velo Project was the women’s series winning team.
