Berriman won the 53-kilometre race in a sprint finish by a length from Richard Vitiello. Gavin Nethery was third at three lengths and ahead of Tony Kuipers, Daniel Wells, Philip Rice and Scott James.

Berriman’s race-winning time was one hour, 25 minutes and 57 seconds.

Jason Spence led the next group over the line in eighth position. He was followed by Tim Devlin, Isaac Mitchell, Colin Hunt and Steve Gendek.

This was the fourth consecutive win for Berriman following on from winning at the Camden interclub race at Menangle, the Optus criteriums the following day at Nowra and then another win at the Nowra Interclub criteriums a week ago.

On the second climb of the long Hames climb, Nethery piled on the pressure in an attempt to shed the sprinters. While the field split apart Berriman matched every pedal stroke and then rode past with confidence.

This action had six riders remaining in the front of the race but Scott James chased back to these leaders in time for the downhill run to the finish.

Into the final 300m finish straight Berriman kicked away from the bunch with Vitiello chasing all the way to the line.

Jo Chalin regained the D grade road race title after he had surrendered it to Hubert Driehuis last year.

The field was small this year and this made for a harder race. Only four riders survived to the finish where Amy Mottram made the first move for the finish. Chalain chased and raced past to the finish while Mottram was fading as the line came up.

Mottram hung on by a length for second position from the hard finishing Kate Darke. Mark Bagnall finished fourth a few seconds later.

Chalain’s winning time for the 53 kilometres was one hour, 39 minutes and 43 seconds.

The Nowra Velo Club is race free on the Father’s Day weekend while Jade Colligan will race in the National Series Tour of King Valley in the Wangaratta area of Victoria.

Jade will be racing with the Sydney Uni/Staminade elite women’s team in the three day, four stage event that is the favourite of Jade’s NRS events.

Day one features an individual time trial and a criterium with a 125-kilometre road stage on day two. This stage includes some long climbs on the black gravel roads of the district. Day three and stage four is a 95-kilometre road stage with two long climbs.

Local racing resumes with criterium events on the Albatross Aviation Tech Park on September 9.