A revolution is brewing in Bathurst and it is one which cycling star Renee Covington is keen to drive.

On Saturday the inaugural Bathurst 200 Open Track Carnival featured an all-female wheelrace – named the Al Dente Renee Covington Cup – and its namesake was not only competing, but thinking of the bigger picture.

The Bathurst track star, who won a gold medal at this year’s masters world championships, believes the wheelrace marks a turning point for female cycling in the city.

“The main idea for me was to promote women’s cycling. It was great for all the girls to travel away to race here, but now they will go back and spread the word and make this bigger and better next year,” she said.

“Next year it is going to be massive – I tell you what, this was a massive moment for women’s cycling in Bathurst.

“We are going to keep pushing now and make female cycling even stronger.”

The Bathurst carnival, staged at the new velodrome, featured a packed program of races which catered for under 9s through to elite cyclists and those who fall into the masters categories.

Two six-lap wheelraces – one for men and the other for women – were the highlights of more than seven hours of track action.

Given the handicap format of the race, it catered to cyclists of all abilities. The Covington Cup featured world masters medallists, members of the Australian junior track team and those who have only recently taken up the sport.

While there are other wheelraces for female riders in Australia, the feedback Covington got fuelled her belief that the Bathurst event will become a highlight of the annual cycling calendar.

“The best thing I took out of the whole lot was all the A grade girls that go to the world titles said ‘Renee, this is the best wheelrace, even better than the Clarence Street Cup’,” Covington said.

“All the other ladies that are brand-new, the ones I’d been sledging to have a go and telling them they’d beat everyone on the lounge, they said ‘We are so glad we did this, it was so much fun’. Those ladies were green with fear this morning.

“It is an experience they otherwise never ever get, because all the top girls usually ride on the boards. To have those girls travel up here was fantastic.

“Female cycling is a really close knit group, there is not bitchiness among the girls, we just want to encourage everyone to ride.”

Part of the attraction of the Covington Cup was the $1,000 purse it offered.

Originally it had been slated as a $600 event – significantly less than the $1,500 offered for the men’s wheelrace – but local businessman Scott Taylor from Al Dente helped boost the prize money.

He was on hand to watch the race and saw under 19s Australian representative Nicola Macdonald win ahead of Bathurst’s Hollee Simons.

While Covington herself ended up with a DNF, she said she never wanted to push for a win.

“I didn’t really want to try and win my own race, so I said I will work to try and get the girls to the front and then I’ll pull off,” she said.

“I couldn’t be happier with how it went.

“The feedback for the whole day was great as well. Everyone was saying it was a great track to ride on and some people even said the toilets are so clean and so great they could camp in them. I don’t know about that, but you just don’t get that feedback for a country track, we are so, so lucky.”