After giving away more than a 20-minute start in Sunday's race, Bolton, who was riding for Oliver's Racing Team, finished ahead of Hodges of Giant Racing Team to win the event, with young local talent Cadel Lovett coming in third.

Lara Allen and new rider Steve Cox lead the way early, but Kevin Bell, Neville Krahe and Scott Allen had started fast and would soon take over the lead.

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Behind them Rob Stephen and Mick Foran had caught Toireasa Gallagher, Pete McKinnon and Charlotte Lovett, while Tim Roebuck and Scott James had broken away from Damien Bennett and Phil Stapleton, who were also riding into contention.

At the back of the race, scratch markers Hodges and Bolton had combined well to catch the block bunch of Lovett, Windsor, David Nicholas, Jack Cannon and Nic Barrett and had their sights on the next group which included Steve Bennett, Brad Rayner and Tony Shaw.

Blue Mountains rider Bell and Krahe worked hard to build what looked to be a winning lead in the final stages of the race, however in a dramatic finish Bolton, Hodges and the promising Lovett powered home to catch the pair in the final kilometre of the race.

Bolton took an impressive win considering he has been hampered by injury recently.

With Bolton, Hodges and Lovett taken the podium positions, Krahe and Bell were the next to finish and may have won the event if the solid headwind hadn't slowed their progress at the end of the event.

Bolton recorded the fastest time in the race with 58:32, a solid effort considering the cold, windy conditions.

The first female cyclist was Toireasa Gallagher in front of the promising Charlotte Lovett.

Bathurst Cycling Club road coordinator Glen Partridge said this Saturday's club road championship should be an exciting affair and he expects Hodges to have a big chance at winning the A grade trophy.

"Will Hodges, if he's riding, we'll have a big chance at winning. If not, I'd say Mark Windsor. I know he's definitely qualified," he said.

"So far, the road season has been great. We've had some up and downs in our entries but we've had 50 nearly a couple of times. Last weekend, we were down to 26 but the weather, who would want to come out?

"We've still got half the year to go, because we've got all our big trophy races coming after the series, like the Rockley Cup."

Saturday's race, which will also act as the eighth round of the Renshaw's Pedal Project Road Series, will take cyclists on the Vale Road circuit.

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