IN FRONT: Orange’s Michael Troy (centre) took out the Western Division Road Cycling Championship on the weekend ahead of Ayden Toovey (second right) and Blair Windsor (second left). Jordan Payne (left) and Craig Hutton (right) rounded out to the top five.
on the 2012 Western Division Road Cycling Championships from defending champ Ayden Toovey of Mudgee and Bathurst’s Blair Windsor.
The championship was at an ideal time for the high profile riders in the region, coming a week before the final event of this year’s Australia’s National Series - the Grafton to Inverell Classic - and New Zealand’s Tour of Southland which will involve the championships major placegetters.
Both Toovey and Windsor came into the championship in great form.
Toovey, who rides with the Racing Kangaroos, had won the Yunca Junior Tour in New Zealand and Windsor, who is part of the Budget Forklifts team, has been on the podium for his results in different classification in his last three National Road Series events.
But it was the Torq BSS rider Troy who upstaged the pair with a clever ride to take the Elite Category at the 2012 championships
After an aggressive start, it was Toovey and Bathurst’s Zac Baker who led them through the first lap.
But in a well-timed attack, Troy jumped across the gap to replace Baker in the race lead with Toovey.
Windsor tried to bring back the leading pair late in the race with Jordan Payne, however, it was Troy out-sprinting Toovey to win the title from Windsor and Payne.
Craig Hutton made it three Racing Kangaroos riders in the top five, out-sprinting Brad Roughley, who was the leading masters rider in front of Bruce Goddard and impressive junior rider Harry Carter.
In the other categories, Orange rider Craig Healey was impressive winning the Sports category in front of Bathurst rider Tony Barlow and 4BS team rider Paddy Corcoran.
The hard-riding Mason Manwaring of Orange was fourth in front of Bathurst’s Kirsten Howard who was the leading female rider on the day. Hollie Simons the next best.
Orange’s Mitchell Bland was also very strong in the classic category breaking clear late in the race to defeat the very experienced Rob Stephen (Bathurst) and Phil Mooney (Orange) with Mudgee’s Carl Holleman fourth and Bathurst Tim Roebuck fifth.
Newcomer Matthew Eyles of Orange lived up to his potential winning the GT category from Terry Rossi and Philip Sharam, in front of the cramping Aidan Sugden and defending champ Rosemary Hastings of Bathurst.
Brothers Max and Travis Stewart dominated the junior events with Max defeating Dubbo’s Tim Harris in the under 15s and Travis taking the under 13s from Orange rider Aaron Rodgers.