Armidale’s Sam Jenner has successfully completed a tough race at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, United States, finishing 54th, 1m19s down on winner Felix GALL (Austria) in the Junior Mens Road Race. 167 riders started the race with the trio of Sam, Michael Storer (WA) and Harry Sweeney (QLD) representing Australia. With heavy rain overnight the surface was treacherous in places, particularly on the cobbled sections and the 130 kilometre race was marred by numerous crashes.

Storer got into a break on lap 5 which was pulled back on lap 6 at which point both Storer and Sam were well placed in the bunch with 2 circuits of the 16.2k course remaining. With attacks going off throughout the penultimate lap, the race was split into multiple groups but the Aussie riders were right in the mix with Storer 26s behind the lead group of 15 and Sam a further 21s back. Sweeney had some bad luck and his race ended with a mechanical issue but Storer and Sam battled to the end, Storer finishing in 16th spot, 36s behind the winner and Sam at 1m:19s.

We will hopefully catch up with Sam when he’s back home and get some more details but it sounds like he had a fantastic race and did Australia and Armidale proud on the world stage – well done Sam and safe travels home!