Adrian McMillan led the Coffeeliscious team to their third victory in the 2020 Optus series on Sunday.
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McMillan won the sprint finish of the 42-kilometre handicap road race staged by the Nowra Velo Club from eight other riders who rode together to contest the win.
McMillan was a clear three lengths ahead of Jo Chalain (Coffeeliscious), Hubert Driehuis (Allen Price & Scarratts), Mark Klein (Allen Price & Scarratts), Martyn Smith (Coffeeliscious), Bill Stahlhut (Hanlon Windows), Zara Jobson (Allen Price & Scarratts), Kate Darke (Hanlon Windows) and Damian Mason (NVC).
The race had started with 42 riders spread across 17 minutes in 11 handicapped groups.
Riding in the first four groups to start, these top placed riders had combined in the first half of the event and worked towards holding off the strong chasing groups behind.
They had just over a minute to spare before the next large group of riders raced over the finish line led by Andrew Crawford (Defence Cycling), Scott Delfs (Illawarra CC), Michael Berriman (Coffeeliscious), Phil Rice (Coffeeliscious), Gavin Nethery (Allen Price & Scarratts), Brendon Miller (Coffeeliscious), Aaron Lauder (Hanlon), Scott Wallace (Illawarra CC), Tony Kuipers (Hanlon), Rob Pickard (Coffeeliscious), Gary Bryce (Coffeeliscious), Tim Devlin and Morgan Clarke (Allen Price & Scarratts).
Merrick Law (Illawarra CC) finished 14 seconds later for fastest time in 62 minutes and 19 seconds.
Law had started the race on the scratch handicap along with Levi Johns (Hanlons).
This duo had picked up their closest group early in the race, adding Ben Rolfe, Brooklyn Henry and Dan Wells to their chasing efforts and from there on gathered in others riders as they dropped away from ahead.
In this round three of the 2020 Optus series, the Coffeeliscious team had their third team win and move to a comfortable lead on 150 points.
Access Storage hold second position with 80 points ahead of Allen Price & Scarratts on 70 and Hanlon Windows with 60 points.
Brendon Miller (Coffeeliscious) holds the lead in the individual points classification wit 67 points, ahead of teammates Rob Pickard (63), Adrian McMillan (62), Martyn Smith (59), and Jo Chalain (59).
Nowra Velo Club racing continues next Sunday with graded criteriums on the Albatross Aviation Tech Park circuit, starting from 8.30am.
New members are always welcome and regular rides are run that cater for most levels of interest. Coaching is available by contacting the club.
