SHE laughed as she admitted her 'legs were legless' in Sunday's road race at the Road National Championships, but those legs still carried Emily Watts to an under 23s bronze medal.
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A product of the Bathurst Cycling Club and Western Region Academy of Sport, Watts headed to nationals as the defending champion in the under 23s road race.
She gave it her all to try and make it back-to-back golds in the 104.4 kilometre race in Ballarat that saw her part of a combined under 23s-elite women's field.
But the leg-burning climb up Mount Buninyong that she had to tackle again and again on the 11.7km loop circuit took its toll.
"I started to hurt in the last four laps which was a bit worrying as there wasn't too much action before that point," Watts, who was riding for the Knights Of Suburbia team, said.
"Obviously there had been a few little groups go away and one of my team-mates got in one which was nice, yeah but the last part was the hardest with a little bit of everything and I couldn't really keep with the pace.
"In my head I was like 'If I just go at my own pace and keep it high I could potentially get back on and not go deep into my red zone'. But I just didn't have it, my legs were legless. I'd done that [been dropped but ridden back on] in laps two and three, so I think my luck had run out."
Watts had stuck with the lead bunch until the final ascent of Mount Buninyong. As she realised she couldn't stick with them and was dropped, she was aware two under 23s riders were ahead of her on the road.
So her focus became clinching the bronze, but that still required a sprint to the line as Watts and Mia Hayden battled it out for the final podium spot.
"We sprinted for the finish. She was quite a small, little girl but she was very, very strong and I was a bit worried about her because I hadn't really seen her race before, she's from Queensland," Watts said.
"It was actually surprising I did find a little bit, it was actually a pretty decent sprint compared to last year's one."
That was Watts' second bronze medal of the 2022 road nationals, the Lithgow native also placing third in the time trial on the opening day.
She clocked a time of 44:37.60 in that 28.6km leg-burner, finishing behind Anya Louw (43:31.17) and Polites (44:09.210). Watts said she felt good on course, but admits she may have gone too hard early.
"I didn't really have a focus more on the time trial or the road race, it was more of trying to target them both equally and see how I go in both," she said.
"In the time trial I felt really good, it's the first race and you really want to hit it well and I had the best preparation to go well as well.
"So preparation was perfect and the first lap was perfect. I got a bit excited though and I was a bit above my power targets for the first bit of the lap and there was also a media motorbike that was next to me for a few hundred metres which may have made me go a little bit faster than I should have.
"Two bronzes, that's pretty good."
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