Cadel Lovett finishes inside top five of his grade, gives NSW strong start to State of Origin series

NSW took top spot across all four grades in the virtual cycling events, where riders from NSW and Queensland will race against one another over three rounds from their own living rooms.

The Bathurst junior had an impressive day on the rollers as he notched the fourth best time in D grade to finish as the second fastest NSW rider in the division.

Lovett, 15, said the the experience on the rollers forces you to do things a bit differently than on the road but it doesn't detract from the competitive spirit of racing.

"It's definitely different doing it online rather than physically being on the road. It wouldn't say it's any harder or easier," he said.

"It's harder in that you can't hear the gear changes and you don't have a 360 degree view. You've just got to watch out for people sprinting, which you can see on the right hand leaderboard."

Zwift gives users a view from just behind the back wheel of their virtual rider on screen, and calculates riders' positioning based on their power output.

"You're able to see the people who are putting out the bigger power, and it's done on power to weight, or functional threshold power - FTP," Lovett said.

"You're concentrating on that leaderboard but also concentrating on trying not get dropped and trying to keep the speed up."

Lovett is using the series as a great chance to get some racing minutes in the legs.

He's got a tough season ahead of him, particularly in track cycling, and can use every bit of motivation he can muster to get prepared for the next step.

"I didn't hear about this series at first. My mum told me, and I thought there was no racing going on here at the moment so why not have a crack at it?" he said.

"Training's hard at the moment, because I don't know when road racing is coming back, so when it does come back I'll need to be right up the top and trying my best not to get dropped.

"I have to focus on track as well because I'll be racing against the older boys next season.

"At the moment I'll be in under 15s when road comes back but when its track season I go onto a higher gearing in under 17s."

Meanwhile former Bathurst Cycling Club rider Emily Watts finished as the highest-placed women's rider in B grade.

NSW filled out the podium in A grade with Chris Ball, Luke Cridland and Alex Micallef, while David Daly (B), Kaide Morrissey (C) and Brad Hooker (D) won the other grades for the blues squad.

Queensland did get some good news on a day dominated by NSW, with Vicki Whitelaw the fastest woman in A grade.

The final two rounds of the competition will take place over the next two Thursdays, on May 7 and 14.