CYCLING
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PADDY Corcoran was the 14th man home in yesterday’s 110 kilometre Blayney to Bathurst long course race, a result good enough to see him declared the first Bathurst rider home.
The consolation prize was a welcome one for Corcoran, whose hopes of a good finish were dashed last year on the climb up Rockley Mount thanks to a mechanical fault.
Corcoran wasn’t even aware he was the first Bathurst rider home until well after the race and was thrilled to have that next to his name.
“It wasn’t an aim, but it sort of ended up that way. If you’d told me I’d get that, well, I was really just trying to finish well,” he said.
“Last year I had a mechanical on the major climb and that put me a few minutes behind the bunch. This year I was in the mix of it, so I’m very happy about that.
“It was very quick this year. We had a large break go early and they drove it out of Hobbys Yards and into Trunkey Creek.
“Out over the range there it was pretty quick. Over Caloola again we started to get sight of them and that seemed to spur everyone to start moving.”
It wasn’t an ideal race lead up for Corcoran, which made him all the more happy to finish strongly – let alone leading bunch.
The going was even more difficult than normal for the Bathurst rider on the climb into Rockley Mount as he found himself losing sight of the leaders the further up he went.
“My legs were screaming. I’d spent a week sick, so it wasn’t the best preparation. I got some good positioning on the hill. I dropped off a couple of times and fought my way back. Over the KOM we splintered into three groups and I was in the third one,” he said.
“Those three groups had come back into one major one by the time we got back into Perthville.
“There were a couple of big hitters there on the Vale Road, but it was just fun by that stage. I’d recovered a bit and I was sitting in a good spot following the attacks, so it was good.”
The Year 12 student says he will have to start bringing his studies to the forefront soon, enjoying his chance to keep cycling competitively when he can.
“It’s HSC mostly. I might step a back a bit at the moment, but from what I’ve heard they’ve changed the venue of under 19s nationals from Gympie to Gold Coast, so I might see about that, but again it depends where it sits with the HSC,” he said.