The course for the Australian road cycling championships has again sparked criticism, this time from national women's coach Martin Barras.
He said reverting back to the hilly 10.2km circuit at Buninyong, near Ballarat, for the road races this weekend would make the women's event less exciting and restrict the type of rider who could win.
Barras would prefer more change following last year's experiment, where a flatter section was added to the circuit.
That followed several years of criticism from riders, led by sprinter Robbie McEwen, who felt the Buninyong circuit played too much into the hands of climbing specialists.
"That's very unfortunate - the course last year really opened the racing to a much broader group of riders and we had a better race because of it," Barras said.
"We're going to back to more of a traditional climbers' race.
"I love going to Buninyong, I love the commitment to the national title.
"It's very important ... but I'm an exponent of varying the course."
One of the main reasons organisers abandoned last year's experiment was because the decisive break in the men's race went away so early.
The 10km circuit, with the long climb soon after the start/finish line, is also more popular with fans.
Race director Sean Muir added it would be impossible to organise separate routes for the men's under-23, women's and elite men's road races on the same weekend.
The men's under-23 (132km) and women's (102km) races are on Saturday and the elite men (183.6km) event is on Sunday.
Barras has raised his concerns with Muir.
"Sure we stay in Buninyong, but we should be changing the course," Barras said.
"I look at very good bike riders like (sprinter) Chloe Hosking - she doesn't look like having any chance of becoming national champion in the foreseeable future.
"That's very, very unfortunate because someone like her would represent us extremely well in the national champion's jersey."
Hosking and defending road race champion Gracie Elvin are nursing injuries after crashing on Thursday night in the nationals criterium.
Elvin said she would be ready for Saturday despite being hurt in the fall that also took Hosking out of the race.
"I'm not letting the race affect me mentally - I'm still in good form and my team (Orica-AIS) is still looking strong," she said.
Elvin is another rider who probably will not perform as well on the hillier circuit, but her team-mate Amanda Spratt won on this circuit two years ago.
"Tactically she's so savvy," Barras said of Spratt.
"She's been flying under the radar - Amanda will be very, very reliable."
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