Chris Berry, Goulburn Cycle Club member and Yass Valley Council’s director of planning, said the 2017 Acciona Gunning Wind Farm Goulburn Great Divide race had a “really strong and high-quality field”.
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Berry, who was a part of the volunteering committee, said there were really high standards of riding, especially in the elite categories.
“Anyone who finished in the top 20 are very good riders,” he said.
The event was held on the Old Hume Highway.
The format for the event had the individual time trials on Saturday and the graded scratch road races on Sunday.
Saturday’s time trials started from the Gunning end of the course making it a tough course with an uphill finish for all grades. There was also a stiff head wind out to the turnarounds.
The time trials included the State Championships for elite men and women, as well as the U23s, U19s and para-cycle titles.
Elite and U23s men raced to Breadalbane and back while the other grades raced to the top of the Cullerin Range.
Veteran Peter Milostic (Penrith) took out the elite men’s championships while Simone Grounds (Dubbo) was crowned women’s champion.
Tristan Ward (Southerland Shire) was the U23s champion, Campbell Jones (Hunter Districts) the U19 men’s champion and Emily Watts (Bathurst) took out the U19s women’s championship.
Sunday’s racing involved five men’s divisions and four women’s divisions with the feature races being the 141km men’s open and the 94km women’s open.
All the races involved multiple laps of the Old Hume Highway between Gunning and Breadalbane over the Cullerin Range.
In the 141km men’s division one, a breakaway of eight riders formed on the first lap but this was whittled down to four by the half way mark.
The race was won in a final uphill sprint by Joel Walsh (Illawarra), followed by Liam Maggenis (Port Macquarie) and Jesse Coyle (Sydney Uni Velo).
In the 94km women’s division one, Makenzie Scott (Hunter District) took line honours with Angela Smith (Peloton Sports) second and Jess Burvill (Sydney) third.
Mr Berry thanked the Goulburn Mulwaree Council for providing traffic control, Breadalbane Public School for catering and Windellema SES for providing first-aid support.
“Major events like this are fantastic for the community – there were riders from across the state, including Sydney, and Canberra,” he said.
The Acciona Gunning Wind Farm Goulburn Great Divide brings to a close the winter road racing season.
Riders will now take a break before the Goulburn club’s summer season starts on November 1 at Breadalbane.
Racing starts at 6pm and new riders welcome.
