Durbridge Takes Road Race Victory at Oceania Champs
Western Australian institute of Sport duo Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Robert Power have claimed the elite and under-23 road race Oceania Championship titles in Toowoomba on Sunday.
For Durbridge, the road race victory made up for the disappointment of suffering mechanical difficulties in the earlier time trial, in which he’d been favoured for gold.
“It’s really nice to get the victory today.I came here to focus on the time trial and that didn’t go to plan [so] I feel like I’ve made amends for that now,” said Durbridge who punctured with three kilometres remaining in the event held on Friday.
“This win is a good confidence boost for me before heading back to Europe.”
2013 national time trial and road race champion, Durbridge used his breakaway strength to his advantage, slipping off the front of a tired peloton inside the final 15 kilometres.
Durbridge was joined by Jacyo-AIS World Tour Academy debutant Power and Drapac’s Wesley Sulzberger.
However the boys from the West proved too strong for Sulzberger, the pair riding to the finish together to notch up victories in their respective categories with Durbridge crossing the line first.
“Both of us were seeing stars in the last five kilometres so we were really encouraging each other.
“We also decided to sprint side by side because no matter who crossed the line first we were both winners,” said Durbridge.
Sulzberger claimed silver after finishing 19 seconds behind the leaders while Brenton Jones (Avanti) won a sprint to the line for bronze.
In the under-23 category, Robert-JonMcCarthyfinished in sixth place to claim silver and George Tansley finished in seventh position to collect bronze.
U23 champion Rob Power said it was an unexpected success and one that he couldn’t have achieved without the assistance of his WA colleague.
“It was pretty awesome to be away with Luke, I never would have expected that at the start of the day,” Power said. “[Luke] was giving me heaps of advice all day, there is no way I would have been on the podium without him.”
Only 32 riders from 206 starters managed to complete the 142 kilometre race due to hot and windy conditions.
“The conditions were really hard today,” Power explained.”Teams were putting the field in the gutter and because of the cross winds, everyone is doing the same amount of work and no one could get an easy ride.”
Earlier in the race McCarthy (SA) took his chances solo inside the final 35 kilometes. William Clarke (Drapac), Peter Milostic (NSW), Cameron Peterson (NSW) and Mitchell Lovelock-Fay (Avanti) soon caught the Herald Sun Tour stage winner and together they gained a maximum lead of 57 seconds.
However team Avanti were determined to keep it together and once again reeled in the breakaway group. From there Power launched an attack on the final climb of the day, taking Durbridge with him.
For 18-year-old Power, it was his first time racing in the Oceania Championships in the mixed under-23 and elite field, something which he said was a daunting thought prior to the race.
“It was pretty scary,” Power remarked. “I raced in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour with the Australian team so I had a bit of experience racing against Drapac and the other NRS teams, but today there was such a quality field that it was definitely daunting.”
The result comes off the back of West Australian’s Jessica Allen (formerly WAIS) and Michael Storer (WAIS) winning the women’s road raceand the junior men’s time trial titles respectively.
In the Junior Men’sroad race, Victorian Lucas Hamiltonclaimed line honours in a two-man sprint from Queensland’s James Thompson. Jai Hindley (WA) took bronze, crossing the line six seconds behind the lead two.
The trio were part of an earlier break of six also including Daniel Fitter (QLD), Michael Storer (WA) and Darcy Pirotta (WA). Hamilton attacked his rivals up the final ascent of the undulating Toowoomba course shaking all but Thompson and Hindley, Hindley loosing contact in the rush to the line.
-CyclingAustralia