Inverell may finally break a 38 year draught in the Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic this Saturday, with two local A Grade riders in with a strong chance of winning.
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Dylan Sunderland and Ryan Thomas will be taking on the event billed as the ‘toughest one-day race in the country’, and both are in top form. A local rider hasn’t won the race since the handicap was removed in 1979.
Thomas will be fresh from a Queensland victory, after winning the men’s elite AB category of the Ipswich Criterium last Saturday.
“It’s a good confidence booster coming in,” Thomas said. He said the local race would be a different scope altogether from the one hour Criterium, but was pleased to go in on a high note.
Sunderland will also be a strong contender after a successful start to the season. He won the 110km Blayney to Bathurst and the QLD State Criterium Championship earlier this month.
Sunderland said as the opening event of the men’s Subaru National Road Series, it will be a competitive field. “You have all of Australia’s best there,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting one,” event manager Chris Thompson said. “Teams are very enthusiastic about getting off to a good start for the series and exerting a level of early dominance, and I think it will lead to some very exciting racing.”
Thompson said the Grafton to Inverell’s reputation as Australia’s toughest one day cycle race was well earned. “I think anyone who’s done the event would agree with that,” he said. “It’s 228 kilometres long and we’ve got 3,383 metres of climbing in that.”
The most difficult part will come 70 kilometres in, with the 17 kilometre climb of the Gibraltar Range. Too early to decide the winner, Thompson said the climb would show who was in contention.
Thompson felt Inverell was in with a good chance of topping the podium this year. He said Sunderland was in good form and that the race played to his strengths as a rider. Sunderland is known for his climbing prowess.
“He has finished in the top 10 as an under 19 rider in the past, so I think with a bit more maturity in his legs – it is a long, hard race, but he’s shown that he can go the distance. So I think Dylan will be a real chance.”
He said Thomas would also be a contender after a strong season on the Queensland circuit.