Velo Canberra had a solid weekends racing in Bathurst over the 21st and 22nd of April; with events consisting of the NSW Hill Climb Championships, Criterium races around the Mt Panorama circuit on the Saturday and the 110km Blaney to Bathurst Sportif on the Sunday.
The team opened the account early on the Sunday with a very solid medal haul in the NSW Hill Climb Championships. Steve collected gold in the Masters 3 category; Mick and Allan collected silver and bronze respecitvely in the Masters 2 event, with Ben coming home in 4th and Andrew took out the win in the Masters 1 category. All in all very good results up the steep and lung busting inclines of Mt Panorama.
In the Criterium races in the afternoon the team was present in divisions 1, 2 and 3 helping to animate each race with strong riding and attacks but were unable to come away with the big results in the sprint to the line in each race.
In the Blaney to Bathurst on Sunday the team had five riders present and were looking forward to an enjoyable days racing through the hills of the Bathurst region. The pace was solid from the start with a number of attacks going off the front. In the end a group of five established off the front with Allan present for Velo. The break worked well together establishing a lead of up to 2 minutes which wasn’t erased until just before the main climb of the day at 80km. Unfortunatly a series of crashes disrupted the race soon after the break was caught and took out the on-form Andrew in the process. Both Ben and Allan avoided the crashes and made it over KOM within reach of the front group and as it all came together both riders were still in contention. More crashes marked the closing kilometers as slick roads and tired riders came undone. Both Ben and Allan managed to avoid the carnage and finished with the leading pack, with both Marty and Felix not far behind. All in all a tough day of racing in the bank.
