Despite being only the NSWIS rider in the race, a heavily marked Caleb Ewan made his move when it counted and was lengths ahead of Robert McCarthy as he claimed his maiden U23 National Criterium title. Harry Carpenter tried his best to forget his narrow loss in yerterday's time trial with a long solo ride off the front but was caught with five laps left.
Carpenter was the first rider to try an attack and his stuck as he quickly built a lead of 15 seconds which remained steady with laps regularly around the 1:30 minute mark. The lead quickly swelled to 20 seconds but once Avanti Pro Racing took control of the chase, the gap was consistently narrowed lap-by-lap.
Ewan launched no attacks of his own and let his rivals control race which played into his hands. "We wanted to let the other people work and we forced [Avanti] to do that and obviously they didn't have anyone in the break so it was perfect for me. I was in perfect position coming into the last straight and not too close to the front and not too far back and it just worked out perfectly in the in," Ewan said.
As the team with the largest numbers, the onus to chase was on Avanti and it appeared they may have done enough when Carpenter was caught. Once he was caught, the attacks came thick and fast with Darcy Woolley trying his luck.
Samuel Spokes lead what remained of the 65 rider who started the race around for the final lap but didn't have the legs to take the win.
[Saturday's road race] is the big one to win and all my preparations are pretty much for that. We saw Harry Carpenter out all day and that a really impressive ride and he did another impressive ride in the time trial and I am sure he is going to be really hard to beat," Ewan said.
"There are at least 20 guys in that bunch that can win that road race which makes it really unpredictable and when you don't have a team it's quite hard. This win doesn't change my strategy or plans for Saturday's road race at all."
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Ewan had enough time to sit up and look back at the chaser's who couldn't match such top end speed. "Because I came from behind I knew the guys that were really contesting the sprint so when I looked back I just made sure I had enough time to put my hands in the air."
"The good thing about being a heavily marked person is that a lot of the fighting goes on behind you… I got to sit exactly where I wanted to most of the day because a lot of people just let me in so it's not all downsides to being a favourite for a race," Ewan said.
Carpenter didn't come up completely empty handed as we won the sprint classification. "I was very happy to take the jersey but it would have been nice to hang on for a few more laps until the end but you can’t win everything so I was just determined to out there and give it my best," Carpenter said.
"It’d be a dream to win the road race on Saturday, yesterday was tough being so close national champion. I was aiming for podium and to get was awesome but there was a fair of fire left in the belly so I was determined to come out today and give it a fair crack and see what I could do but I couldn’t quite hang on at the end," Carpenter said.
