Durbridge does the business in Ballarat

Luke Durbridge claimed his first national title in scintillating fashion, dominating the time trial in Learmonth, Australia. The 19-year-old West Australian blitzed the field to win by 50 seconds ahead of Jayco AIS team-mate Michael Hepburn. Jay McCarthy finished a
further fourteen seconds back to claim bronze ensuring a Jayco-AIS clean sweep of the podium.

Durbridge clocked a time of 33:23 over the 27.1km course. The youngster missed out on a gold medal by less than two seconds in last year's world time trial championships and was thrilled with his ride today.

"I'm very, very happy to come out with an Australian title, I'm really stoked," a smiling Durbridge said after the race. "Personally I felt I came in as one of the favourites. Rohan [Dennis] was chasing me and I had a little bit of pressure but I rolled the whole time hoping I could take it out today and it worked....I ran on adrenalin and I'm very happy.”

The riders started in overcast conditions and finished in rain around the country roads at Learmonth. Durbridge was second last to leave and it didn't take long to catch his minute man, Nathan Haas (Genesys Wealth Advisers), overtaking him at around the half-way mark. Durbridge was hammering along and it was evident he was on a great ride. Haas was just one of the victims crashing out and was shattered after the race as he was aiming for the podium.

"Nathan [Haas] had a fantastic road race and would have been up there today. He will bounce back from today, he's a fantastic rider. Full credit to him," said Durbridge.

Durbridge didn't look like slowing down after catching Haas and went full gear to the end.

"Over the final climb, it's about 5km to the finish. By that time I knew I nearly had it in the bag and James [Victor] said you have to put it in the big gear and go all the way home and that's what I did. James and I work hard on time trials and that's why I have some good results in time trials."

Durbridge crossed the finish line averaging 48.71km/h showing his true class.

"I loved the course. It was fantastic. It had long drags and you need sheer power and that's what suited me," Durbridge concluded.

Hepburn and McCarthy happy with medals

Queenslander Michael Hepburn would have liked to have won, but praised Durbridge's efforts.

"If you look at Luke's results last year you will see he's on the best time trialists in the world," the 19-year-old said.

"Coming second, I'm pretty pleased with that. I wasn't sure where my form was at and my preparation hasn't been great so I'm stoked to come away with a silver medal."

McCarthy, a silver medalist at the under-19 world championships last year in the road race was thrilled with his bronze medal.

"It's a great result for me. I didn't know how my form was coming into this event. It's a big year for me going into the Jayco-AIS team as I will be spending a lot of time in Europe and hopefully get some good experience. I came fifth in the under-19 world time trial last year. I had an accident in that race and was a bit unlucky but
to come back to a time trial and get a good result is great," McCarthy described.

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