"A pretty good weekend."
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Winning gold medals has become so commonplace for Orange cycling maestro Ben Anderson he made a clean-sweep of his last year of NSW Junior Road championships.
Anderson swept the time trial, road race and criterium in the Hunter Valley, and on the back of those efforts has been named in the NSW under-15 squad as the number one rider to head to the Gold Coast in six weeks time.
We'll see if I can maybe pick up some gold medals at nationals now.
- Ben Anderson
Not only that, Anderson beat all-comers - including gun ACT rider Oscar Chamberlain - after battling the flu in the lead-up.
"It knocked me around a bit," he said of the illness.
"I had time off the bike and then took quite a while to get over it and back into it, so I was pretty pleased to win those medals coming off the back of that [illness].
"Conditions were pretty tough as well, there was a massive headwind that made things a bit difficult at times."
That headwind hurt fellow Orange rider Luke Tuckwell, who won a time trial in the Hunter Valley weeks beforehand but battled into the breeze and just missed the state squad.
Anderson managed to best the conditions and continue his stunning run of form over the past 24 months and keep doing what he's done best - winning gold medals.
"I wanted to see how I'd go against everyone else... but [winning] was the main target, trying to see if I could pick up a few gold medals," he said.
"I'm definitely excited to be in the NSW side, we'll see if I can maybe pick up some gold medals at nationals now too, that's the goal."
He also saw off his toughest competitor in Chamberlain, who he'll meet again on the Gold Coast.
"That'd be a good way to finish in the under 15s, with a few medals, it'll be tough and I think he'll probably be my biggest competition at nationals so it was nice to get a win against him at state," Anderson said.
"A lot of hard work goes into the next six weeks to get ready - six day weeks, more kilometres, longer and harder sessions."
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