National Championships 2021 – Australia – Road Race [FULL RACE]

February 7, 2021

National Championships 2021 – Australia – Ballarat – Ballarat : 185,6 km

The AusCycling 2021 Federation University Road National Championships gets under way in and around Ballarat on Wednesday, with the racing for this delayed edition beginning with the time trials. The elite and U23 women face a renewal of the battle between defending champion Sarah Gigante (Tibco-SVB) and Grace Brown (Team BikeExchange). Luke Durbridge (Team BikeExchange) is set to make it to the start line as the unquestioned favourite in the elite men’s race, but he’ll be facing up to a couple of new challengers this year. The elite women and men’s events are the final battles in what will be a day of racing against the clock at the 2021 edition of the Australian Road Championships, which is running nearly a month later than normal this year given the disruptions to racing caused by the pandemic. The field has undoubtedly been altered by the circumstances, with a number of European-based Australian riders foregoing their usual summer trip home, and there were some concerns that even the riders already in Australia might miss out after a COVID-19 case led to a lockdown in and around Perth on Sunday.

Cameron Meyer (Team BikeExchange) defended his elite men’s road race title at the 2021 Federation University Road National Championships, winning from a group of seven after an unpredictable final couple of laps where the rider in pole position to take the top step seemed to change from moment to moment.

Kelland O’Brien (InForm TMX Make) came second in the 185.6 kilometre race while Scott Bowden came third from a group of seven that continued to battle and swap position right up to the line. Meyer was an emotional winner last year when he secured the title after so many near misses and was beaming after taking it a second time.

“Every lap I thought I was in trouble, this isn’t going to happen. Somehow the best teammate you can have, Luke Durbridge, popped up there right at the end, saved me, brought me to the line and I just pulled on the experience that I had in the finish there. I think that is what won it for me. I have done that sprint a fair few times, lost it, and I just got the timing right and somehow pulled off a miracle today,” said Meyer.

The fortunes of Team BikeExchange fluctuated throughout the race, with Australia’s only WorldTour squad getting off to a good start with a strong presence in the early break. Then later they were on the back foot, with InForm TMX Make holding the cards, particularly with Luke Plapp and Kelland O’Brien putting pressure on out the front. However they came out on top when it mattered, winning the final race of the Australian Road Championships to make it two elite men’s titles at the event, with Kaden Groves taking the criterium win on Friday.

How it unfolded

It was a big early break in the 16 lap race on the course near Ballarat, which includes a climb of Mount Buninyong and the twists and turns of the roads around Federation University. The initial break of nine included strong players like Team BikeExchange’s Damien Howson and was dangerous enough that others decided to make the leap across as well, which meant the group continued to grow until it numbered around 16.

However, even before the race was at the half way point attacks came from the swelling group with track rider Sam Welsford leaping out of the front and 2020 National Road Series winner Brendan Johnston (CCS Cycling Team) joining him. In the meantime the peloton drew closer to the initial break, which as a result adjusted and changed, with some falling off the back and others, such as Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) and Luke Plapp (Inform TMX Make) bridging across.

Then at 64 kilometres to go, with nearly a third of the race left, the 20-year-old rider who had decided to join the elite ranks early after a stellar performance at the Santos Festival of Cycling, made his move. Plapp joined Johnston and his track, but not Nationals, teammate Welsford up the front. It wasn’t long before Plapp dropped them too, out the front solo with 55 kilometres to go and quickly pulling the gap out beyond a minute.

The remaining contenders sensed danger and ramped up the pace and by the third last climb there was a chasing group starting to close the gap to the lone leader and that group included Harper, Meyer, Kelland O’Brien and Mark O’Brien (InForm TMX Make), Sebastian Berwick (Israel Start-up Nation) and Jesse Ewart (Team Sapura).

It wasn’t long until Harper took off out the front of that group, with Kelland O’Brien jumping onto his wheel and later Berwick too. They caught the previously solo Plapp to make it a group of four out the front, for a little while at least. Plapp, who hadn’t before tackled the longer distances of the elite men’s race, and Berwick ran out of steam.

Then after the bell rang for the final lap Kelland O’Brien took off by himself, dropping Harper, of all places, at the start of the climb though he couldn’t hold off the chase for long. When it came down to five kilometres to the line it was nine riders together, Kelland O’Brien, Mark O’Brien, Harper, Meyer, Durbridge, Ewart, James Whelan (EF Education-Nippo), Nicholas White (Team BridgeLane) and Timothy Roe (Cervelo-Tonsley Village).

Roe crashed on one of the final corners holding up Mark O’Brien in the process and leaving it down to seven to make that final dash. Whelan spectacularly catapulted off the front on the final straight but it ended up being too early and he was swamped as the other riders wound up to sprint.

“When you have had a hard race like that you don’t have much left. You have literally probably got 50 to 100 metres left in the legs before they start cramping. You could just see everyone sitting down just hoping the line would come,” said Meyer. “Young Kell went, Nick White went and that is who I had to get to go first, run at them, try and go to the line at the last second and win by just the smallest of margins so I timed it right.”

White came in fourth, behind O’Brien and Bowden.

Results :
1 Cameron Meyer (Aus) 4:39:12
2 Kelland O’Brien (Aus)
3 Scott Bowden (Aus)
4 Nicholas White (Aus)
5 Jesse Ewart (Aus)
6 James Whelan (Aus) 0:00:04
7 Luke Durbridge (Aus)
8 Mark O’Brien (Aus) 0:00:08
9 Timothy roe (Aus) 0:00:10
10 Chris Harper (Aus) 0:01:44
11 Sebastian Berwick (Aus) 0:02:12
12 Drew Morey (Aus) 0:02:57
13 Tasman Nankervis (Aus)
14 Nathan Earle (Aus)
15 Lionel Mawditt (Aus)
16 Samuel Jenner (Aus) 0:03:00
17 Lucas Plapp (Aus) 0:03:37
18 Samuel Hill (Aus) 0:08:30
19 Alastair Christie-Johnston (Aus)
20 Mathew Ross (Aus) 0:09:36
21 Liam White (Aus)
22 Aidan Buttigieg (Aus)
23 Brent Rees (Aus)
24 Joshua Wilson (Aus)
25 Jack Aitken (Aus)
26 Oliver Stenning (Aus)
27 Marcus Culey (Aus)
28 Sam Crome (Aus)
29 Sebastian Presley (Aus)
30 Cyrus Monk (Aus)
31 Brendan Johnston (Aus)
32 Rylee Field (Aus)
33 Benjamin Dyball (Aus)
34 Reece Tucknott (Aus)
35 Dylan Mckenna (Aus)
36 Robbie Hucker (Aus)
DNF Alexander Edmondson (Aus)
DNF Lucas Hamilton (Aus)
DNF Kaden Groves (Aus)
DNF Damien Howson (Aus)
DNF Ayden Toovey (Aus)
DNF Ben van dam (Aus)
DNF Angus Lyons (Aus)
DNF Alistair Donohoe (Aus)
DNF Michael Rice (Aus)
DNF Ryan Thomas (Aus)
DNF Kane Richards (Aus)
DNF Samuel Volkers (Aus)
DNF Iven Bennett (Aus)
DNF Leigh Phillips (Aus)
DNF Thomas Bolton (Aus)
DNF Callum Pearce (Aus)
DNF Bentley Niquet-olden (Aus)
DNF Carter Bettles (Aus)
DNF Ryan Cavanagh (Aus)
DNF Brenton Jones (Aus)
DNF Jordan Villani (Aus)
DNF Dylan Lindsey (Aus)
DNF Alexander Holden (Aus)
DNF William Hodges (Aus)
DNF Steele von Hoff (Aus)
DNF Jordan Louis (Aus)
DNF Brendon Green (Aus)
DNF Patrick Saccani-williams (Aus)
DNF Jacob Langham (Aus)
DNF Harley Moore (Aus)
DNF Michael Harris (Aus)
DNF Daniel Luke (Aus)
DNF Rylan Dowdell (Aus)
DNF Curtis Dowdell (Aus)
DNF Jason Thomason (Aus)
DNF Cameron Ivory (Aus)
DNF Tristan Dimmock (Aus)
DNF Adam Nelson (Aus)
DNF Brayden Clews-proctor (Aus)
DNF Toby Stewart (Aus)
DNF Tom Chester (Aus)
DNF Lucas Hoffman (Aus)
DNF Sam Greenwood (Aus)
DNF Matt Burton (Aus)
DNF Cameron Fraser (Aus)
DNF Tim Cutler (Aus)
DNF Dean Madden (Aus)
DNF Giovanni Ross (Aus)
DNF Matthew Sparnon (Aus)
DNF Peter Wakefield (Aus)
DNF Darren Benson (Aus)
DNF Alex Durrant-Whyte (Aus)
DNF Josh Abbey (Aus)
DNF Harrison Cleary (Aus)
DNF Stuart Smith (Aus)
DNF Chris Hargreaves (Aus)
DNF Ben Hilleard (Aus)
DNF Matthew Byrne (Aus)
DNF Angus Calder (Aus)
DNF Declan Wharton (Aus)
DNF Lewis Bull (Aus)
DNF Kelly Carter (Aus)
DNF John Davis (Aus)
DNF Robert Doyle (Aus)
DNF Alex Edney (Aus)
DNF Garry Millburn (Aus)
DNF James Mortimer (Aus)
DNF Christopher Panozzo (Aus)
DNF Oliver Penney (Aus)
DNF Alexander Porter (Aus)
DNF Hamish Webber (Aus)
DNF Sam Welsford (Aus)
DNF Daniel Wood (Aus)
DNF Hayden James (Aus)
DNS Steven Robb (Aus)
DNS Peter Milostic (Aus)
DNS Matthew Sherwin (Aus)
DNS David Frazer (Aus)
DNS Stuart Darling (Aus)
DNS Oliver James (Aus)
DNS Daniel Mcconnell (Aus)
DNS Connor Rate (Aus)