Katherine Hosking has returned to Armidale this week as NSW U17 Womens Road Race State Champion. One of five riders who traveled south and represented the club on the weekend in Wagga Wagga, Katherine was in great form in the 60km road race, attacking off the front of the bunch on an incline with 8km remaining. She was then joined by 2015 Cycling Australia U15 ITT and Road Race National Champion Lauren Robards (ACT), and the two then worked together to put over 30s into the pack by the finish.
A very fast sprint saw both riders charging for the line with Robards just edging the win by 1/100th of a second. As Katherine was the first NSW finisher she claimed the U17 NSW Road Race Champion title and automatic selection into the NSW Road Team which will compete in three weeks at the National Road Championships in Bendigo. Congratulations Katherine on a fantastic result achieved in highly entertaining, attacking style.
Katherine’s sister Isabella competed in the U15 event over 30km. Following the family theme she attacked on the first hill at 8 km out and was joined with one other rider. They managed to open a gap but it didn’t hold and riders regrouped only for Isabella to attack once again, pushing over the last crest but unable to open a sufficient gap. It ended with a bunch sprint and 8th spot for Isabella finishing alongside Tamworth’s Olivia Saunders.
David Cook, Sam King and Tom Simmonds were also competing for Armidale with an Individual Time Trial on the Saturday morning, Road Race in the afternoon and a Criterium on Sunday morning. The Individual Time Trial was held on a very flat course, 14 km for the U17 and 10km for the U15. Even though it was a little cool there was not much wind so the times were expected to be fast and would suit the bigger riders.
Cook produced the strongest performance in the ITT from the Armidale group posting 26th. While Simmonds placed 34th and Sam King 35th. Katherine Hosking finished 11th in U17 and Isabella 12th in the U15.
The 60km U17 mens road race picked up dramatically at around the 25km mark where the 40 strong peloton broke apart with a trailing group of 6 riders. Cook managing to stay with the lead peloton while King and Simmonds, determined not to finish the race off the back of the peloton organised a regroup and pulled back to the leaders. Cook managed to weather further attacks to stay with them taking 12th place with the same time allocated as the winner, while Simmonds and King placed 33rd and 34th respectively.
The Criterium was held in the middle of town with Cook and Simmonds competing. As expected, the pace was brutal for this 30 minutes plus 3 lap event. Once again Cook managed to hang to the lead group, even dodging a crash 200m from the finish line to take 12th overall with the same time as the winner.
Huge congratulations to all 5 of our club riders on a very successful weekend of racing. It is great to see Armidale so well represented at this level and we wish Katherine all the very best for the Nationals next month.
Full official results available online here.