Work commitments meant that Windsor couldn’t compete with his Budget Forklifts team, and with a ranking of 13th in the series, it would have been a good opportunity to push for a top 10 spot.

Windsor and defending champ Craig Hutton were particularly aggressive early in the Bathurst road championship until Windsor quickly built a winning lead on the Caloola Hill. 

Hutton led the chasers home in second and Suzuki Bontrager Team rider Harry Carter took out bronze.

“That’s the third title I’ve won. It was a pretty tough race on Saturday,” Windsor said.

“To win the club championship is always an honour, especially when you take into account some of the people who’ve won it before like Mark Renshaw and my brother Dean, even going back a few years to ‘Cliffo’ [Greg Clifton]. I’m very happy to get another one.

“I made a bit of a move up Caloola Hill. It was getting quite windy and difficult and I thought it’s now or never and started to try and pull away. Craig Hutton is riding really well at the moment, but I 

had just enough to get away from him.”

Jarrod Bell and Gus McClelland filled the remaining top five positions, and Ryan O’Donnell, Zach Baker, Steve Bennett, Brad Roughley, Bruce Goddard and Mark Windsor rounded out the top 10. 

Orange champion Charlie Gascoyne had some bad luck in the tough, windy conditions, as did Bathurst triathletes Richard Hobson and Jono Cutler.

Kirsten Howard looked to have the leading female performer wrapped-up until she fell heavily in the final stages of the B grade when riding with the leaders. 

Hollee Simons’ top five overall in C grade cemented her spot as the leading female in the championships from Toireasa Gallagher, who was returning to the saddle, and Jasmine Lee.

With his latest title under his belt, Blair Windsor now says that he will hope to target the Goulburn to City race and the Tour of Tasmania as the National Road Series (NRS) draws towards its conclusion.

“At the start of the year my job was just to try and help my team win races and if that was me winning, great. If not, then it didn’t matter, and getting a high ranking wasn’t important,” he said.

“But when I saw that I was sitting 13th and I realised I was going to miss the next few rounds, it was a bit of a shame. It would have been nice to try and push into the top 10.

“The Tour of Murray is coming up, but it doesn’t look like that will suit, so the Goulburn to City, which is probably the closest thing to a local event in the NRS, looks like the race where I’ll start again, before the tour of Tasmania, which is one of the big ones in Australia and has a lot of history.”