Cycling Australia Road National Championships
Hello and welcome to the first weekend race wrap of the 2017 season. We start with the Cycling Australia Road National Championships where Miles Scotson (BMC) and Katrin Garfoot (Orica Scott) won the men’s and women’s elite road races on Sunday. The final day of action capped four exciting days of racing in Ballarat with Garfoot pulling off the double after claiming the women’s time trial title earlier in the week.
Scotson won with a bold attack in the final 1500 meters and held off a late charge from pre-race favourites Simon Gerrans (Orica Scott) and Nathan Haas (Dimension Data). It was Scotson’s first win since moving into the WorldTour and the 22-year-old capped an excellent week for his BMC team after Rohan Dennis won his second consecutive time trial title, and Scotson’s younger brother, Callum, won the under-23 time trial championships for the BMC Development team.
"I waited behind on that last lap and just whacked them and wound the gear out and tried to tuck low on that descent," explained Scotson, who had a bigger front ring placed on his bike yesterday. "When I got to the bottom of that hill and seeing the gap that I had, I couldn’t believe it. I was like ‘wow, this really is going to happen’. There were so many different feelings coming into the line and I just couldn’t believe it,” Scotson said after his win.
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Garfoot became the first woman in eight years to do the double in the women’s elite field. Having won the time trial, she carried her blistering form into the road race and saw off her Orica Scott teammate, Amanda Spratt, in a two-up sprint. Lucy Kennedy (QAS) completed the podium with third. Garfoot had finished fourth in last year’s road race, while Spratt had of course won after bridging across to an early break.
"I wanted to be here for a few years now, and I finally did it," Garfoot said in a post-race press conference attended by Cyclingnews. "It feels great. Also, the double, which was the dream coming into it. It's very special, especially because it's such a rare thing to achieve."
To catch up on all our coverage from the Cycling Australia Road National Championships, click here.
USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Championships
British Cyclo-Cross National Championships
Other races:
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