WA cyclists dominate at Australian Road National Championships

Western Australian cyclists Cam Meyer, Luke Durbridge and Sam Welsford claimed a WA trifecta in the elite men’s races at the 2020 Australian Road National Championships in Ballarat.

12 years after first racing the national championships Meyer found the top spot of the podium in what the nine time elite world champion on the track described as a career highlight.

“I have no words to describe this. It means so much to me, there is a lot of emotion on this day, there is a lot of history in it for me. Twelve years ago at 21, I fell in love with this race,” said Meyer.

“It has been a long time coming, everyone asks me all my stories over all the years and now I can tell them this is the best story of the lot.”

The win also created history for Meyer as he became the first Australian to have won the elite men’s road race, time trial and criterium titles throughout his career.

“I have had the time trial twice and the criterium, but this is the one I really wanted. I am going to have a few sleepless nights replaying this for sure.”

In the time trial it was Luke Durbridge claiming gold for the second year in a row, again upstaging world champion Rohan Dennis in the process for a fourth career crown.

“It just gets more and more special and I think when you win them as a young guy, you don’t realise how special they are, and how hard they are to come by,” said Durbridge.

Olympic silver medallist on the track Sam Welsford showed he is only getting quicker as he blitzed the city circuit to claim gold in the criterium for his first elite title on the road.

“I am over the moon. This has been in the back of my mind to try to win this race. Last year I missed the mark a little bit so it’s great to come back this year and take the win,” said Welsford.

“This is pretty special to me as I haven’t had as much success on the road, as I have on the track, so to have my first elite medal on the road to be gold, it is just unbelievable.”

Photo: Con Chronis