IF you had asked Zach Marshall before the start of Saturday’s men’s wheelrace final who he thought would win, his answer would have likely been scratch markers Cameron Scott or Tirian McManus.
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But after six hectic laps of racing neither national under 19 champion Scott nor former World Cup winner McManus were first over the line at the Bathurst Velodrome.
Instead it was Marshall, the former Bathurst Cycling Club member who now races for Illawarra getting the nod after going from a 90 metre handicap.
He took out one of the feature races of the Bathurst Track Open ahead of Mitchell Wright (40m) and Charles Hamilton (85m). Josh Corcoran (95m) was the best of the Bathurst riders in 10th.
“In my head I honestly had myself out of the race because it is very common for the scratchies to get up and get the win, especially when there are a lot of us in there,” Marshall said.
“So I was pretty happy to go on and win.”
While the field was spread out over 290 metres for the wheelrace final, it did not take long for the backmarkers to bring things together.
Marshall was happy to let others do the work before unleashing down the back straight of the final lap. His acceleration caught out the rest of the field and they were unable to reel him in.
“I was feeling pretty good. I’d had a pretty easy race just following wheels,” he said.
“I never got to race on this track because I left Bathurst just before it was built. But to come here and win the wheelrace in a race that was super fast, I’m really happy.”
