THE feature Rockley Cup handicap race has given us some memorable finishes over the years and the Bathurst Cycling Club event produced another on Sunday as Xavier Bland claimed the spoils.
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Orange native Bland took out the race with a great final climb to see off fellow 18 minute marker Nic Barrett, after the pair had worked brilliantly together all day to forge their way to the front of the pack.
Bathurst Cycling Club president and Western Region Academy of Sport coach Marian Renshaw said it's always great to see the club's juniors celebrating success in open-age events.
"It's quite a nice for Xavier, that's for sure. We had quite a few WRAS riders in that race with Xavier, Ebony Robinson, Oscar Hansen and Paddy Crump," she said.
"This was their first time on that course so it was an exceptionally good effort by all of them. Xavier's been riding very well lately, and Orange have five riders up there who are all training consistently.
"Originally they were all on the same handicap mark but Xavier managed to get away from them and outlast everyone."
Rod Esdaile, starting from 30 minutes, had strong winning hopes coming into the last run up Quarry Hill after passing Nev Krahe and breaking clear of his co-markers Kevin Bell, Greg Vinell and Fran Walker early in the race.
Xavier's been riding very well lately.
- Marian Renshaw
However, Barrett and Bland were on the chase after pushing their 18-minute group to breaking point.
Further back in the field the Nic North and Will Lesh were riding strongly in the 10 minute bunch which also included Stuey Renshaw, Dubbo's Graham Peadon and top female rider Hollee Simons though they were going to need a huge performance to keep Barrett and Bland in their sights.
Giving away the maximum 35 minute start were scratch markers Jeremy Ryan, Luke Tuckwell and Simon Hickey. They started well but their gap was too big to make up.
On the final climb it was clear the race was between Barrett and Bland, with the young Orange rider surging to take victory.
Esdaile hung on for third from the fast finishing North who broke the two hour barrier for the tough course.
Nine minute marker Jack Cannon also overtook many riders to round out the top five.
Josiah Cooke had a strong ride for sixth in front of scratch markers Luke Tuckwell and Jeremy Ryan.
Hollee Simons continued her great recent form to win the first female trophy as she defeated Fran Walker who was the early leader of the event.
Only three riders broke two hours for the race.
Fastest time went to promising young cyclist Luke Tuckwell with an impressive 1:52:00 followed by Jeremy Ryan and Nic North.
In 2011 a third climb of Rockley Mount was added to the Rockley Cup course, so in 2016 a support event was added to race day to increase participation which only climbed the mount twice.
The race, christened The 'Little Rock' by Marian Renshaw, was raced for the fifth time on Sunday.
Three times winner of the Rockley Cup feature event Mark Windsor was the victor of the Little Rock in a new record time of 1 hour 21 minutes and two seconds.
Last year's winner David Hyland was second in front of Gary Theiss.
The inaugural Pebble Cup - which has just the one ascent of Rockley Mount - went to Joanne Renshaw with Tracey Robinson second and Robyn Partridge third.