Daniel Wells won the 53-kilometre road race for the Jones Memorial Shield on Braidwood Road on Sunday.
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Wells (Allen Price & Scarratts) won by two lengths in a bunch sprint finish ahead of Scott Wallace (Illawarra CC), Rob Rix (BVH/Coffeeliscious) and Brad Oaten (Allen Price & Scarratts).
This race was also the eighth round of the 2018 Optus series and along with the individual win, Wells led his team to a clear win in the team classification.
On a windy morning, Wells started the race in a group of six riders who were 20 minutes behind the leading riders on handicap and seven and a half minutes ahead of the five-rider scratch bunch. There were nine groups spread over the handicapped field.
Wells co-markers at the start included Wallace, Rix, Colin Hunt (APS), Tony Kuipers (APS) and Jason Spence (Hanlon Windows).
This became a solid working group and they were quickly across a four-minute gap to pick up Geoff Lockhart (BVH), Tim Devlin (NVC), Brendon Miller (BVH) and Phil Yardy (ACT). From there this group raced through the field but only just reached the front in the last five kilometres.
Amy Mottram and Kate Darke had combined their efforts early in the race and with hard work held the lead for so long until they were rolled in on the final run to the line.
The lead group raced into the finish straight and Wells charged straight to the front and held his advantage to the line. Gary Bryce (BVH) finished fifth ahead of Lockhart, Devlin, Kuipers and Dean Jackson (APS).
Then came Hunt, Darke, Bill Stahlhut (Hanlon) and Amy Mottram.
Just seconds later the combined scratch and second scratch groups raced into the finish with Jarrod James (BVH) leading over the line in 14th position and followed closely by Shane Wood (Hanlon), Ben Rolfe (APS), Richard Vollebregt (SHCC), Mark Williams (Hanlon), Brooklyn Henry (Hanlon), Jean-Paul Brando Carre (BVH), Phil Rice (Hanlon) and Mark Astley (BVH).
Spence, Miller, Richard Vitiello (Hanlon), Josh Henry (BVH), Michael Thompson (APS), Pat McSwiney (Hanlon), Greg Showell (BVH) and Yardy finished next with four riders failing to complete the distance.
Vollebregt rode the fastest time of the day in one hour 24 minutes and 28 seconds. He had started the race on the scratch mark along with Brando Carre, Astley, Jade Colligan (Hanlon) and Simon Meridith (Illawarra CC).
After five kilometres Colligan and Meridith were gone and the three remaining chasers added and passed riders throughout the distance in their chase towards the front of the race.
The Allen Price and Scarratts team had five riders in the top 10 positions and dominated the points for a team win ahead of Bomaderry Vet Hospital/Coffeeliscious and Hanlon Windows.
The Nowra Velo Club will have a two-week mid-season break from here and return to racing on July 28 with the Camden Interclub at Menangle followed by round nine of the Optus series on the Albatross Aviation Tech Park on Sunday, July 29.