FOURTEEN state medals and two riders picked to attend nationals – the Bathurst Cycling Club’s juniors certainly had a bumper weekend at the NSW Junior Road Championships in Wollongong.
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Bathurst sent a contingent of six riders to the state titles, competing in age groups from the under 9s through to the under 17s.
Impressively, all six stood on the podium while Luke Tuckwell (under 15 men) and Kalinda Robinson (under 17 women) gained selection in the NSW team which will attend the 2018 National Junior Road Championships in Bunbury, Western Australia this September.
State selectors could not pass on Tuckwell’s gold medal winning time trial ride at Wollongong – getting the nod by 0.19 of a second. He combined this with sprint finishes in the road race and criterium for a fourth and fifth place respectively.
Robinson’s best performance came in the road race where she clinched silver, while she also picked up fourth in the time trial and bronze for the criterium.
The duo will be joined by four fellow Western Region Academy of Sport [WRAS] cycling squad members at nationals – Benjamin Anderson, Haylee Fuller, Dylan Eather and Daniel Barber.
WRAS and Bathurst Cycling Club coach Marian Renshaw was delighted with such strong representation.
“WRAS has taken six of the possible 16 positions on the state team. This is a magnificent result for these riders who have shown great commitment and effort in their training and racing this year,” she said.
“With eight more of the NSW team coming from regional areas, it shows that barriers facing regional riders are being overcome.”
As well as the impressive efforts of Tuckwell and Robinson, Bathurst’s younger cyclists who were not eligible for state representation produced some brilliant rides at Wollongong.
These kids are developing into terrific riders ... I'm so proud of them all.
- Marian Renshaw
They contested their respective individual time trial, road race and criterium on a weekend which saw heat and wind on Saturday followed by rain, cold and wind.
At her first state championships, Jenna Gallagher (under 9s) came home with silver, bronze and a gold from the three events.
In the under 11 girls division, Paige Squire dominated as she took the trifecta of three golds in a brilliant culmination of her road season.
Ebony Robinson (under 13s) rose to the occasion, bringing home a silver and bronze, and Cadel Lovett (under 13s) was rewarded for his hard work this season with two silvers and a bronze.
“These kids are developing into terrific riders. To see them all achieve state level success after training through the tough winter that Bathurst has had has been wonderful. I'm so proud of them all,” Renshaw said.
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