BATHURST cyclist Drew Carter has been crowned Western Division champion after picking up the A grade honours at Saturday’s meet in Orange, the first time the track edition of the titles has been held in almost a decade.

The revived competition saw Carter defeat another Bathurst contender in Harry Jones, who showed that he still has plenty of class  despite a vastly reduced workload in recent years.

Carter was coming off a good performance at his previous outing in Dubbo and across the four events on Saturday, his consistency was the difference between a podium finish and an overall victory.

“The riders all had four events, they started with a four-lap derby race which is essentially a simple one-mile sprint,” Western Division Cycling president Mark Windsor said.

“That was followed by a one-lap time trial, a points score endurance race of about 20 laps with intermediate sprints, and a keirin race controlled by the pace bike at the head of the field.

“The winner is decided by points collected from each event, and Drew was good enough to take it out.”

Before the championships Carter spoke of his relative fitness, citing a lack of race-laps under his belt as a possible sticking point when it came to trying to get an overall win.

But on Friday night he warmed up perfectly by picking up the Bathurst Cycling Club sprint title at the Sportsground. That gave his confidence a boost.

He didn’t destroy his opposition from start to finish in Orange – Jones took out the derby and Max Stewart won the points race – but Carter’s efforts across all four were good enough to finish in first.

From a Bathurst angle, seeing Jones in second was equally pleasing.

“Having Drew win it overall is fantastic, it is nice to see him doing well. He rode very well on Friday as well in the local race here,” Windsor said.

“It was awesome that Harry was up there as well. He was a rider with so much potential as a junior, but he’s been concentrating on doing an apprenticeship which I believe is nearly finished now and hopefully he’ll keep getting back into the riding.

“With the new velodrome in Bathurst, it would be great to see riders like him returning to race on a regular basis. He has a lot of talent and can still achieve a lot.”

In the lower grades, Lithgow veteran Graham Stait, who has now been competing for over 50 years, was defeated by Mitch Bland from Dubbo in B grade.

Bathurst picked up another win courtesy of Stacey Fish, who’s recent good run of results continued with a C grade title. She defeated fellow Bathurst rider Eliza Bennett.

In the junior grades, Olivia Martin took out the under 19s, Chris McEwen won the under 15s, with Dylan Eather (under 13s boys), Lucy Stewart (under 13s girls), Jarred Barnes (under 11s boys) and Sophie Martin (under 11s girls) all claiming wins as well.

The other highlight of the carnival was the penny farthing exhibition race, co-ordinated by Bathurst enthusiast John Kitchen.

A group of Bathurst cyclists, including Kitchen, his son Alex, Carter, and Robert Strang all from Bathurst, took part in the four-lap ride, which was as much about survival as racing for some of the participants.

That came after they rode through the main street of Orange on the way to the Moulder Park venue.

“They had people stopping in the street and taking photos, it drew a fair bit of attention,” Windsor said.

“That was how they used to do it back in 1887 when the Western Championships were first held, they’d parade through the street on the way to the track. 

“Alex Kitchen actually won the race, which was a bit of an upset.”