A day for the Dodger

Adam Hansen never stood a chance in the men’s time trial at the Australian Open Road Championships.

On a day that may have resembled a typical arctic winter, the boy from Cairns was never in the hunt of scoring back-to-back national titles.

Here's a solid unit that is used to training in temperatures where the mercury rises to 35 degrees and where the humidity levels are an energy-sapping 100 percent on most days at this time of the year, conditions were certainly not to his liking.

It was so cold, it prompted Hansen's supportive mother, who can be seen at most of his boy's big races around the world, to claim that the weather in Ballarat "was an embarrassment to Australia."

Battling a strong headwind – one that ripped through his strong frame, Hansen appeared to cramp during the middle stages of the 38 kilometre circuit.

You don't stop pedaling when the stakes are as high as they were around Bunyinyong!

The last to leave the starting gate, Hansen's priority was to chase down Michael Rogers, who started one minute ahead of his Columbia teammate and defending champion.

What a terrific comeback it was from Rogers who's endured a season of mixed fortune because of illness and bad luck.

A nation cheered him on when contesting for an elusive medal in the road race at the Beijing Olympics last August only to miss by the barest of margins.

"Dodger" rarely chooses to compete in his own domestic time trial because the timing of the event has not been to his liking in past years.

An intense training schedule over the Christmas period included sessions on snow-covered roads or spending several hours on the wind trainer located in the basement of his Varese home in northern Italy.

Despite arriving five days before the TT, he showed no ill-effects from jet-lag, that was obvious from his performance.

He pulled open the curtains from his Ballarat motel room on the morning of the race and was cheering when discovering the weather was too his liking – cold and windy!

Yes, the weather certainly worked to Rogers' advantage.

It's difficult to predict but Rogers may look back at the time trial success as the turning point to a successful season, and we're only less than two weeks into the new year.