ROCHELLE GILMORE is still short of peak power to produce her best sprint after recovering from a broken pelvis, Australian women's road-race team coach, Martin Barras, says.
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However, the national selectors believe the Commonwealth Games road race champion is still at a good enough level to deserve equal leadership status for the elite women's road race at the world road championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, which start on Monday and finish on Sunday week.
For the 140-kilometre race on Saturday week, NSW's Gilmore (Lotto Honda) will share leadership of the seven-strong Australian team with the ACT's in-form Chloe Hosking (HTC-Highroad), who was fourth in the six-stage Ladies Tour in the Netherlands, which finished on Sunday.
Gilmore's return from injury - including broken ribs and bruising to the hip, ankle and knee - in a crash in stage five of the Giro d'Italia in July has been remarkable.
''[After facing] six weeks of recovery, she did a very good job and shaved nearly 10 days out of that,'' Barras said.
''There's still work to be done between now and the worlds. But she's done a good enough job that we're willing to back her up for the world championships. The worlds is a race she has been targeting for a long time. That is reflected in the way she has gone about her rehab. But she has to finish work on a power perspective and speed perspective.
''We had her in training camp at altitude and we were pleasantly surprised to find how much fitness she had recovered considering how late she got back to normal training.''
While Barras conceded her power and speed were ''not going to be the very best levels'' at the worlds, he is confident ''she can be competitive. That is why we are backing her.''
Choosing Gilmore and Hosking as leaders was to cover the two scenarios that selectors foresee emerging from the road race in Copenhagen.
Barras said they were ''the possibility of an arrival in a big bunch but also the very, very definite chance there will be breaks going up the road. The course is not super selective, but we think it lends itself to to a very aggressive race and we expect very much that is the way it will be raced. … ''
Also in the team are Shara Gillow (Qld/Jayco-AIS), who will also race the time trial, Jessie Maclean (ACT/Verducci Breakaway), Carla Ryan (Qld/Garmin-Cervelo), Amanda Spratt (NSW) and Vicki Whitelaw (ACT/Lotto Honda). The other time-trial spot went to Taryn Heather (Vic).
The men's under- 23 world titles team named yesterday is: Rohan Dennis (SA/Rabobank), Luke Durbridge (WA/Jayco-AIS), Michael Hepburn (Qld/Jayco-AIS), Richard Lang (NSW/Jayco-AIS), Jay McCarthy (Qld-Jayco-AIS) and Thomas Palmer (ACT/Drapac) for the road race; Durbridge, Hepburn and Damien Howson (SA/Jayco-AIS) for the time trial.
This reporter is on Twitter: @rupertguinness
