THE Victorian State Junior Road Championships will be held in Glenrowan this weekend. Around 320 riders will be attending Wangaratta and Glenrowan for the annual event with 120 juniors, including children as young as eight-years-old racing over courses between 4km and 10km. These Age Group championships have been hotly contested in Glenrowan for more than 20 years, and have included riders such as current Australian Champion and Olympian Luke Plapp, and previous Australian Champion and Olympian Sarah Gigante. Gigante won the Tour down Under this year and has won on the hotly contested European circuit this season as well. The event brings together all of the junior cycling clubs from around Victoria, including Wangaratta Cycling Club. The upcoming races in August are the finale of the VJRS - the junior series. Junior cycling clubs cater for riders who enjoy riding, and often cross disciplines such as Road Racing, Time Trial, BMX, Mountain Bike and Cyclocross. The sport has had a resurgence at the community level since the introduction of the AusBike programs which teach children how to ride. The AusCycling Junior Road Race Championships will take place on August 10 and 11, and will be held in conjunction with the State Age Group Championships where older riders will compete over 60 to 80km. Cycling events supported by Rural City of Wangaratta are part of the regional strategic objective to attract cycling related events to the North East of Victoria, and build on the choice of state level events that also include the Ronda van Taminick (October), the Winton-Greta-Winton Race (October), the Tour of Mansfield and the Tour of Bright (December). Wangaratta Cycling Club, Shepparton Cycling Club and Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club have combined efforts to host this event on some of Victoria’s most spectacular roads. Victorian Road Series (VRS) The VRS is the adults race series and that relates to the Ronde van Taminick (October 27) and Winton – Greta - Winton (October 26) races in October. For 16 years the VRS has been the pre-eminent cycling race series in Victoria for Elite and Masters cyclists. It has incorporated significant races and cycling tours around the state. Participants include rising U19 and U23 cyclists destined for the world 's biggest races (eg Sarah Gigante and Cyrus Monk) and retired professionals who have raced the biggest events (eg Tom Leaper). Each year the series includes four or five events that culminate with the season ending event in Tour of Bright in early December. Regularly over 400 people participate in the series. The Ronde van Taminick and the Winton-Greta-Winton races mark the first time that Rural City of Wangaratta has hosted a full weekend of VRS level racing sitting naturally alongside traditional events in Mansfield and Bright on the calendar. The event is supported by the Wangaratta Council to promote the healthy lifestyles in the North East and to promote sports related tourism to the region.
