The Nowra Velo Club criteriums on Sunday featured fast bunch sprints to determine the winners while members were also gathering medals at the Cycling NSW Country Road Championships on Saturday.
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Levi Johns and Brad Oaten were the winners at the local racing on a clear crisp morning at the Albatross Aviation Tech Park and Nick Johns took gold in the CNSW Country Road Championship for division one masters at Penrith Lakes.
At this same championship program, Adrian McMillan claimed silver in his masters event. McMillan raced early in the day on wet and gritty roads while Johns raced later in the day on dry roads and clear skies.
Both of these riders are noted for the race finish sprinting speed which paid off once again.
On the local scene the division one event was over 35 minutes plus two extra laps of the 800m circuit with the early antagonists being Shane Wood, Brooklyn Henry, Jade Colligan, Levi Johns and Robert Packer (St George CC).
The field had split by half distance with Johns, Colligan, Packer, Brooklyn Henry, Wood and Aaron Coghlan racing ahead.
The chase bunch had some strong men in Mark Astley, Tony Kuipers, Josh Henry, Ricardo Vitiello and Ben Wallis but they could not close down the speedsters up front.
Shane Wood led into the final lap at the bell but it was Johns first out of the final corner into the finish straight.
Johns held a two-length lead over the line with Colligan taking second by a half wheel from Packer in a desperate throw at the line.
Brooklyn Henry was fourth and Wood was fifth. Josh Henry was the first of the chasers finishing in sixth position with Astley just a wheel away. Kuipers, Coghlan, Vitiello and Wallis were next over the line.
After a disappointing "did not finish" in the previous week's road race, Brad Oaten was an early animator in division two over 30 minutes plus two laps.
Oaten wanted a hard race and he made sure it was whenever the pace slackened. Frank Neri was away and then caught, Ian Kielly chased down every move and Michael Thompson was trying to slip away in a break.
Kielly led into the last lap with the favoured sprinters, Adrian McMillan, Brendon Miller and Oaten next in line.
Then into the finish straight Oaten had taken over and was sprinting for the line with Miller chasing all the way. Miller was a length back but held second ahead of McMillan, Kielly, Thompson, Neri, Lynne Vaughan, Jose Pereira, Graham Johns and Mark Robbins.
Liam Wallis was the first of the division three riders to finish ahead of Jamie Overton and Zac Peters.
Next weekend has the Camden interclub events at Menangle with a solid team of Nowra Velo riders on the entry list on Saturday and the next round of the 2019 Optus series as a 42-kilometre handicap on Braidwood Road on Sunday morning with the Hanlon Windows team as the rostered officials.