BATHURST already has a reputation for being one of the heavyweights of Masters racing in New South Wales, but come this weekend they will get the chance to enhance that on familiar roads.

The Central West will play host to one of the largest gatherings of Masters cyclists in the country when for the first time when Molong and Orange host the NSW Masters Road Cycling Championships. It was previously staged in Griffith.

The Bathurst contingent will help make up part of the more than 350 racers plus their families and officials who are expected to attend.

According to Bathurst rider Jill Harris, who has won Masters state time trial events in the past, the competition will be stiff.

“It’s a good thing to have in the Central West, we have got a lot of good courses here with good hills and good facilities,” she said.

“It is really good for all the locals – and by locals I mean Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo – and even some of the Sydney riders. Sometimes they don’t compete if they have to travel more than four hours away for an event ... but being here it is reasonably close to a lot of other places.

“When I looked on the Cycling New South Wales website, numbers were up on previous years, so it is going to be tough, but we’ve got some real good Masters riders from Bathurst.”

Bathurst’s strengths in Masters cycling not only extends over both men and women, but the different age categories as well.

Rosemary Hastings and Marian Renshaw are two of the more experienced female riders and they will compete in the higher age categories.

Stacey Fish, Vanessa Bennett who is coming off a strong ride in the Blayney to Bathurst, Jette McKellar and Harris are also riders to watch.

In the men’s events Graham Stait and Jim Lavis – who is making his comeback from a hernia operation – will compete in the older age divisions as will Rob Stephen, who placed third in the Masters 7 criterium last year.

Richard Hobson, Ryan O’Donnell and Steve Bennett will ride in the younger divisions while Lithgow’s Kevin Bell and Orange rider Charlie Gascoigne, who compete for the Bathurst Cycling Club, will also be pushing for a podium finish. 

Mark Windsor missed out on the recent Blayney to Bathurst due to illness, but if he is well enough to ride this weekend will certainly be one to watch.

“We’ve got a lot of really good riders, we have riders in Masters 1, 2 and 3 which are the younger categories and have a lot of people coming from professional racing, then from Masters 5 and up, in the older age groups, we’ve got a lot of strong riders too,” Harris said.

The championships comprise of a road race, criterium and individual time trial. Harris believes the road race is likely to provide the sternest challenge.

“The road race course is a really testing course. Sometimes there are one or two challenges in a course, but this course has challenges all over and different challenges for different styles of riders,” she said.

“It finishes on a 13 per cent hill too, so that will test people.”

Cycling NSW chief executive officer Phil Ayres said based on past experience, Bathurst riders can look forward to a three-day cycling extravaganza and some fierce competition

“Masters sport is one of the largest growing sectors in the sports industry and cycling is no exception to that,’’ he said. `

“Unlike the recreational mass rides held in Orange and Bathurst in recent weeks, the state championships sees us bring foot to the floor racing to the region.

“We do have masters riders who come to the championships for the experience and to achieve personal bests, but we also have riders who have trained hard for many months with the expectation of attaining state championship titles and medals. 

“Age doesn’t necessarily mean slow.’’