Australian Road Championships: Kaden Groves wins elite men's criterium

Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange) finished off an aggressive 40 laps of racing for his Australian WorldTour team by taking the win from a break of three to secure the elite men’s criterium title at the 2021 Federation University Road National Championships.

Nicholas White (Team BridgeLane) came second as Luke Durbridge (Team BikeExchange) took a well-earned third spot after helping deliver his fast-finishing teammate to the line at the race around the 1.1 kilometre criterium circuit in the heart of the Victorian city of Ballarat.

“I had to work pretty hard there, but the boys did a really good job and once it started getting hard, I knew Durbo was at the front and I knew if I could get to him he would bury himself to keep us away,” said Groves.

It was the first national title of the Australian Road Championships for Team BikeExchange, with both the men and women’s teams missing out in the individual time trials on Wednesday and also the other criterium categories. 

It was Durbridge’s second time standing on the podium at this year's Nationals, although second spot in the time trial wasn’t the position he wanted considering he had held the title for the past two years. Groves, too, was frustrated with his second place at the final criterium stage of the Santos Festival of Cycling, leaving the two Team Bike Exchange riders determined to deliver the top step this time.

Durbridge rode aggressively throughout the race. When a break he was in got caught, he would just keep trying again until that final break, which White jumped on, stuck. The duo of White and Durbridge then became four with about 6 laps to go, when Groves and Patrick Lane (InForm TMX Make) clawed their way onto the back.

Durbridge ramped up the speed and worked to stretch out the gap for his teammate, dropping Lane and keeping the fast-finishing Kelland O’Brien (Inform TMX Make) at bay. It was then just a matter of holding off White on the run-in to the line to take first and third for the team.

“Everything went to plan. We wanted to make it a really aggressive, hard race and try and put our big rivals under pressure,” said Matt Wilson, sports director at Team BikeExchange.

"The guys did an awesome job, especially Durbo, he was super and we got the win. It’s the first win for Kaden in 12 months so it was great for him to get the win, get that monkey off his back and head to Europe with a win under his belt."