West Australian Luke Durbridge won Australia's first medal at the Junior Road World Championships in Moscow, Russia, yesterday. Durbridge, 18, won the Under 19 time trial ahead of American Lawson Craddock and Denmark's Lasse Hansen.
"I'm absolutely stoked and I just can't take it in at the moment," said Durbridge. "I headed out really quickly and was fastest in the first lap and then I died a little bit in the last lap but I managed to hold onto it."
He won the 25.8-kilometre race, two circuits, in a time of 32'52" and an average speed of 47. Craddock was two seconds slower and Hansen 10 seconds slower.
"This course had lots of gradual climbs and I could use the big gear and my power to get up them. My track work preparation meant I could use high cadence on the downhills so that helped me a fair bit as well but the course was rather flat."
Durbridge, Under 19 Australian champion, has won many gold medals. Last year, he was a member of the victorious team pursuit at the Junior Worlds and the elite team pursuit at the Melbourne World Cup. This season, he won team pursuit gold at the Oceania and Australian Championships.
"When I got on the rollers today I knew it was going to be a good day," said Durbridge. "I was going well in Adelaide [pre-event team training camp - ed.] and I coped well with the flight over."
He will not contest Sunday's road race, but will instead turn his attention to the track events which begin on Tuesday.
"We've been training for six months on the team pursuit and that's definitely my goal."
