Certainly, there are endless permutations of how a race will unfold, and of course there are always crashes and disappointing missed breaks, but generally, the lads are doing what they should in looking after each other.

In women's racing, especially domestic races, unpredictability and opportunism are often the order of the day. A whole myriad of unknowns riders and varying agendas can make for a challenging race indeed. The women who win are attentive, strong, relentless and possessing self belief (a back-up plan helps too!)

People (read: those not actually in the race) often report that these races are boring. Well, as my Grandmother Jean would say "only boring people get bored."

Six man lead out trains are very cool, yes. But they're impossible if you're a solo sprinter like Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Chloe Hosking (HTC Highroad).

And flying, high speed attacks may look very spectacular on the telly, but you can only execute them with confidence if you have a few team mates (or legs like multiple world champion, Marianne Vos).

In yesterday's 116km Oceania Road Championships, 64 women took to the start line in cow-themed Dookie, in perfect conditions.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Rochelle Gilmore had commissioned a team to do her bidding in an effort to win the race in a bunch sprint and seal a spot in the AUS team for Copenhagen. Along with recent Otway Odyssey winner and superb lieutenant, Peta Mullens, she employed 3 women who have all ridden in the AIS National Team - Carly Light, Sarah Roy and Myf Galloway to represent Honda.

The Jayco AIS team were a tight, well organised outfit, and along with the blistering form of Shara Gillow, they had Lauren Kitchen, Amanda Spratt, Alex Carle and sprinter & track star Belinda Goss. All damn day they would be initiating attacks, chasing breaks & trying to make the race as hard and fast as possible.

2011 National Road Champion Alex Rhodes (Garmin Cervelo) had returned from Europe for these Championships, and was clearly in great shape. She was communicating regularly with Emma Mackie (Team Tibco) during the race, as both are very classy riders but without any team support here.

There were a dozen or so women in the AUS Sport Commission's Talent ID Program, a terrific initiative coordinated by staff at the AIS. Many of these had just come out of a "survivor" type camp at the Institute, part of a selection for a development team travelling to Europe later in the season. Their talent was confirmed, but likely they were carrying a fair amount of fatigue!

Melbourne based team Bike Force had a small group of strong and motivated riders, including Bec Domange, Clare Dallat and Chloe McConville. Always aggressive in local crits and hardworking in road races, it was clear they were seeking a break opportunity for McConville.

As the race unfolded, Jayco and Honda were attacking and marking each other, and some brave individuals were getting into the mix. Gillow & Mullens were in break early on, but that came back in the 3rd of 5 laps. At the end of lap 4, on the approach into town, I got away solo but the active & motivated Jess McLean (former Amy Gillet Scholarship holder) chased me down, & brought with her Gilmore, Spratt and Galloway.

So, at the start of the final lap, it was hotter, windier and gruppo compatto.

Rhodes started unleashing some power on the uphill drags, countered by Mackie and McConville. Finally, Gillow was successfully away with McConville on her wheel and the pair got a significant gap quite quickly. Despite feeling pretty overwhelmed by others' change of pace in the earlier few kms, I realised (hoped) that if I was tired, then surely, THEY were all tired...

I didn't want a bunch finish, there were probably only 10 tired gals in this damn bunch I was going to outsprint anyway. And with Shara and Chloe gaining time, there was only one thing for it.

Attacking with tired legs in the last 20km of a 3.5h race is all about timing. You have to be braver for longer. And not look back.

So I chased, and every few kms, I calculated the time gap to the front two. I was catching them, but at this pace, I might need another hour of racing. And I'd be dead of dehydration by then.

With 15kms to go, the gap was down to 22s and along the narrow back roads of the lap, I think it was 16-17s. But then on the last little climb of the day, I saw Shara drop Chloe and the gap between them grow. This meant two things: 1. Chloe wasn't able to hold the wheel of the über climber and extraordinary talented National and Oceania TT Champion (not really news there, most of us can't) and 2. the race wasn't over.

On the last uphill corner with 4km to go, I had to aim to get past McConville with enough pace so she couldn't get on. Think wet-sail pace, by this stage. She held my wheel, but was definitely more tired than me. But this mighty redhead has it all over me in a sprint, so there was no way I was going to drag her to the finish line!

My VIS comrades in Lisa Jacobs and Kendelle Hodges were terrific in roaming the front to protect my chase, so I thank them wholeheartedly!

I accelerated away, held a gap and finished in second place. Shara Gillow won her 2nd Oceania title, demonstrating the blistering form she'll take over to Europe for the first World Cup of the season in Varese in a weeks time.

McConville got her first medal and well deserved result in a Championship race, after being active in the bunch all day. Gilmore decided to gear up a mini-train to take the bunch sprint for 4th.

A huge thank you to Paul Larkin from CyclingEdge who played the roles of mechanic, team manager, Duke of Hazzard convoy driver and general supporter of morale. He was bloody invaluable!

Ray did a great job passing off bidons in the feed zone which coincidentally always seems to double as a point of acceleration for the bunch!

My beautiful Parlee Z5 ran smooth as silk with its SRAM Red, SRM PC7, FSA seatpost, bars and stem and Enve Composites 65s. Steve from Sungraphics just keeps on getting complements for the paint job he did!

I'm off to Italy on Monday to start a new team (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), in a new town (Treviso) and a hopefully a whole new adventure.

Next race: Trofeo Alfredo Binda, the first UCI women's world cup in Varese, ITA. Home ground advantage!!