Cycling's best ready for state championships

SOME of the next generation of Australian road cyclists are descending on the rural city for a massive weekend of cycling. Just over 200 participants in total will be expected to be riding across the weekend which begins with the Time Trial State Championships on Saturday followed by the Junior Road State Championships and the seniors Ronde Van Taminick road race on Sunday. Wangaratta Cycling Club secretary Paul Somerville said it was fantastic for the region to be able to host a feature race on the Victorian cycling calendar. “It’s going to showcase all of the up and coming cyclists for the area,” he said. “Especially in the under 17s men's which has a very strong field and it won’t be surprising to see some of these riders representing Australia in the near-distant future. “It is one of the features seeing these guys, like the senior men will be going in excess of 40km/h on their time trial and the under 17s men won’t be going much slower. “It really is a strong field from the lower age field to the senior field. “I highly recommend for anyone in the community if they want to watch some national standard cycling to come out and have a look.” Local riders from the club, Reuben Smith and Jo Somerville from the under 19s men and under 17s women respectively, will be ones to watch while Lachlan Stewart in the under 15 boys and Max Holgate from the Alpine Cycling Club will be in the mix. Feature riders making a start over the weekend include Ivana Cichelli in the masters women, fresh off a UCI Gran Fondo bronze medal in the United Kingdom last week, and Australian prospect Oscar Gallaghar in the under 19s men. The time trial will take place starting from the Winton Wetlands hub riding up and back down the Lake Mokoan Road, in varying distances with the senior riders reaching Glenrowan-Boweya Road and completing two laps of the 15km circuit. The road racing will begin with the Australian Junior Road State Championships with the under 11s to under 17s competing, followed by the Ronde van Taminick Road race, which serves as round three of the Victorian Road Series for the senior riders and under 19s. Both races will take place starting from Glenrowan’s Beaconsfield Parade, going up the Warby Range and Taminick Gap Road, before making their way down the Glenrowan-Boweya Road. Sommerville said the age groups will complete varying laps of the 21km circuit, with the elite A grade men riding six laps and 126km in total. “The challenge is getting up the Taminick Gap, then the fast descent down, the Taminick Gap will always test the peleton where it splits up going up the hill and re-forms on the way down,” he said. “Especially on the last lap it’s where winning moves will get made going up the hill, where any riders will want to put the effort in to gain an advantage and hold onto that advantage for the last 10km into Glenrowan.” The time trials begin from 9am tomorrow with the under 11s with the races beginning with the under 15s from 8:50am the following day, concluding with presentations at 3:30pm at the Glenrowan Primary School. For more information you can visit the AusCycling event guide via the link: https://assets.auscycling.org.au/s3fs-public/2023-08/cccc-tech-guide-010823.pdf?VersionId=hcWoK9dAneSc2t2Ftjiph02ONBlhSHPJ.

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