LEADING into the 2016 Western NSW Road Cycling Championships at Orange, Craig Hutton wasn’t sure he’d have the legs to come out on top.
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Battling illness the week leading into the A grade road race – the track was a three-lap, 20 kilometre loop circuit on the surrounding roads of the Orange airport – Hutton was lucky to make the starter’s gun, never mind challenging for the main prize.
But the 24-year-old gun stunned the field to come away with victory, out-sprinting Cowra’s Will Hodges to the finish line, with Bradley Rayner and Mark Windsor finishing third and fourth respectively.
Hutton was as surprised as anyone.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough in the legs … but they held up,” Hutton said.
“Young Will Hodges made the first decisive move. At about the halfway mark the bunch began to catch up.
“I’d been sick leading into the weekend, but the conditions were really good, actually.”