Olympic and Commonwealth Games track star, Katie Mactier and Wesley Sulzberger claimed top honors in the women’s and U23 men’s races at the Australian Open Road Championships in Bunninyong, near Ballarat, Victoria on Saturday.

The 31-year-old Mactier, the 2001 road champion, out gunned eleven rivals, including the reigning Olympic and reigning Commonwealth Games road Champions, to win the title in a time of 3hr10min35sec ahead of 2003 U23 Olympic Distance Triathlon World Champion, Nikki Egyed, 24, with Mactier's Victorian teammate Emma Rickards third.

"When you come out and take a win like this with such a competitive field it's the best thing that can happen to you and I can't wait to get up in the morning and go training," said Mactier. "I've been doing this for many years and I think it's an honor to wear the Aussie jersey because it's so hard to get it.

"It's three hours of absolute slogging your guts out on that course," she said. "It's a fantastic race and I really enjoy this course (because it's a) very honest and fair course and at the end of the day you work really hard to earn this jersey for the year which makes it more gratifying."

Mactier's winning sprint came at the end of a race that saw all the main contenders play a waiting game after Queenslander Louise Kerr launched a solo attack in the second of the ten laps of the 10 kilometer course. Kerr remained in front until the final climb of the race, seven kilometers from home, when her rivals ended her courageous effort and reeled her in.

That set up an all star finish with a lead group of 12 riders including Athens gold medalist, Sara Carrigan, Barcelona gold medalist, Kathy Watt, Melbourne Commonwealth Games champion, Natalie Bates and 2003 Australian Champion, Olivia Gollan. Carrigan attacked on the final descent sparking a frenzied response from Mactier and Rickards.

"When Sara attacked I knew she is very, very good technically and would make up time on the descent so I said to Emma 'if we don't chase her down she'll win the race'," said Mactier who placed second on the same course in the 2004 Championships. "So we drove really, really hard to catch her."

Mactier will now concentrate on her track training.

"My priority lies on the track and it's now all about Beijing so everything is now designed for the individual pursuit in August next year," said the Athens Olympic Games silver medalist who will contest next month's Australian Championships in Sydney ahead of the World Championships in Majorca, Spain at the end of March where she hopes to reclaim the individual pursuit world title she won in 2005.

For Egyed, the result was disappointing but says she will use it as motivation for the future.

"Unfortunately there was a little bit of inexperience on my part and I probably wasn't as aggressive as I should have been," said Egyed who switched to cycling from triathlon because she wanted to be involved with a team rather than continue as an individual athlete. "Our team sat down yesterday and said 'if we don't win this, we should be ashamed of ourselves', we had so many good girls - it's really hard to take."

Sulzberger takes U23 race
In the U23 men's 122.4 kilometer road race the gold medal honors went to Tasmanian Wesley Sulzberger, 20, who outpaced West Australian teenager Cameron Meyer, 19, in a two up sprint for the line.

Victorian Simon Clarke, 20, edged out Bathurst's Dean Windsor, 20, (Drapac Porsche), 2min25sec later to claim bronze and give the SouthAustralia.com-AIS team a clean sweep of the podium

Sulzberger, who last year claimed the Tattersall's Cup Series crown, crossed the line in 3hr15min00sec to improve on his 2006 silver medal and take ownership of the green and gold Australian Champion's jersey.

"There was a certainly a bit of pressure on me after last year's results but I knew I'd done enough to be in contention to win," said Sulzberger who launched a solo attack on the tenth of 12 laps and was joined at the front by Meyer a lap later. "My plan was definitely not to lead the sprint out with a headwind and Cam had the same idea so it was a balancing act in the last kilometer with both of us ready to jump off each other.

"In the end I was lucky enough to roll him," said Sulzberger who praised the effort of Meyer who had been in the leading group for most of the day. "Cam had an excellent ride and was away nearly all day - the ride of the day goes to him and then to come across at the end again to give me support - it was a top ride by him."

Meyer, who last year claimed three Junior World Championship gold medals on the track and was named the Australian Junior Male Road and Track Cyclist of the Year, was thrilled with his first outing in the U23 ranks.

"I didn't know what to expect going into my first year but I laid it all out on the line," said Meyer. "Wes was too good today but to have a teammate beat me and for me to run second I'm really pleased.

"I'd been out there (at the front of the race) a lot and didn't know how my legs would be but when Wes went it was the perfect move for me to join him and swap off turns to ensure we could go one-two," he said. "I'm a bit young and haven't got my sprinting legs yet and Wes is really tough but I have plenty of years to come.... I would love to have a gold medal at Australian Championships in future."

Third placed Clarke suffered from being the man marked by Windsor who found himself outnumbered in the decisive break.

"Once we started attacking he (Windsor) had to decide who to cover and unfortunately it was me so I had to put up the white flag and say 'come on guys up to you'," explained Clarke. "He didn't chase Wes when he attacked and I said to Cam you can get across because Dean's watching me and that's what he did.

"It was a long day and we just had to ride smart as a team and we managed to come out on top," said Clarke commenting on the fact that five South Australia.com-AIS riders were in a front group of six with three laps to go. "We just knew we had the numbers and knew everyone would be looking at us to take the initiative and we did it the right way."

On Sunday the men's elite field will contest 16 laps of the course, 163km, to decide the 2007 title holder.