Alastair MacKellar (Israel Cycling Academy) swept up a solo victory in the men's U23 road race at the AusCycling Road National Championships on Saturday, with the 20-year-old using the second last lap of the race to catch the longstanding break before forging out ahead alone after the bell.
"I’ve been here for five years and I’ve been dreaming of this for five years," MacKellar said. "To be able to come in and win and solo and enjoy the last 200 metres was a dream come true for me."
It was more than a minute after MacKellar crossed the line before the next group of riders hurtled towards the line, with a tight three-way sprint to decide the remaining two podium spots.
Brady Gilmore (ARA Skip Capital) – who had initially been part of MacKellar's three man attack from the peloton – secured second. Third went to Alex Bogna (Alpecin-Deceuninck), the rider who had done so much work to keep the break away. James Panizza (Team BridgeLane), who also had been out in the break much of the race, had to settle for fourth, getting so close to the podium with his unrelenting effort to hold firm at the front.
The race played out on the regular home to the Australian Road National Championships, an 11.6km circuit including the climb of Mount Buninyong Road. The U23 men took on 12 laps, for 139km of racing on a sunny 28°C afternoon.
The first big move of the day came in the third lap of of the race as Malachi Covington (Gallina Ecotek Lucchini Colosio) went out alone early, and Ryley Collett (Cycling Development Foundation) set off in pursuit settling in the middle. However, ultimately both were swept back up and on the fifth lap the peloton was pulled apart on the climb. A big group formed out the front, first nine strong and then 12 as three riders bridged the gap.
The gap stretched quickly, first building to over two minutes and then, with five laps to go, to over three. By that stage some of the original break had fallen back, leaving the front group as Spencer Evans (Bendigo & District CC), Bogna – who was constantly driving the pace and rallying the troops – Lachlan Miller (ARA Skip Capital), Liam Johnston (Trinity Racing), Kurt Eather (CCACHE x PAR KÜP), Matson McAdam (NCMG Criterion Racing), Adam Maccan (Velofit Australia CC), Stinus Bjerring Kaempe (WSA KTM Graz p/b Leomo) and James Panizza (Team BridgeLane).
The growing gap to those out front also set off alarms within the peloton with chase groups continuing to split off and venture off in pursuit, as it was becoming increasingly clear that the bunch wasn’t going to make the junction if it didn’t get a move on.
Three laps to go and the gap had dropped to less than two and a half minutes and the lead group was no longer working so harmoniously, with the pace being pushed again on the uphill run to Mount Buninyong. Johnston went on the attack and Bogna and Panizza were quick to respond leaving the three out the front as they turned onto the official climb. Kaempe, Miller and Evans, chased and made the junction before the top so now it a group of 6 out the front.
Two laps to go and the gap had dropped down to two minutes and now the lead group was down to five, with Evans having also slipped back. In the meantime, though, Brady Gilmore (ARA Skip Capital), Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic) and MacKellar had jumped out of the field and were closing fast.
“When the gap got out to over three minutes and we only had four or five laps to go, I was getting a bit worried, but this is my fifth year here now and I know you can bring back a lot of time in those last few laps so I kept patient and just trusted the process of it all," said MacKellar, who twice finished on the podium in the U19 category and finished seventh and sixth in his previous years in the U23 category. "I knew I had the legs and two (laps) to go was my plan from the beginning."
MacKellar's legs in fact were so good that he also accelerated away from Gilmore and Hopkins while in pursuit of the break. On the Buninyong Road climb he then quickly caught Evans, who had slipped back from the front group. That gave him an ally, but he perhaps didn't need one as it wasn’t long before he joined the group and immediately went out the front, making it clear that while he may have had to work to make the junction from the peloton, he was far from spent.
"I came up to the breakaway quicker than I thought I would, and I had some momentum through the Uni so I just went straight away but I wasn’t expecting that to stick, and it didn’t," he said.
Then, with one lap to go, after the group had passed through the finish line with the bell ringing, MacKellar used the uphill run that came before the turn on to the official climb to hit out alone and the gap quickly grew. MacKellar was off and heading solo toward a national title.
"It was a one ditch effort, that’s all I had and luckily it was enough,” said the new U23 national champion.
