Bathurst Cycle Club may be playing the underdog card but motivation is high heading into this weekend’s club challenge against its Dubbo counterpart.
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In last year’s inaugural club challenge it was the Dubbo team which reigned supreme and the two will do battle again on Saturday.
The club challenge at Bathurst Velodrome shapes as one of the highlights of the city’s Track open event.
The race is an Italian pursuit format, where seven riders from the host club against seven from the visiting club with the largest contingent for the overall program go head-to-head.
This year the Bathurst Track Open has received strong support from the Orange, St George and Illawarra Clubs, but as Dubbo Cycling Club has the most riders entered, it will get the chance to defend the title it won 12 months ago.
But open co-ordinator Glen Carter feels Bathurst has learned from that experience and he is hoping to see an upset.
“You’ve got to have one rider in each age group from under nine through to a masters. So an under nine, under 11, under 13, under 15, under 17, under 19 then an elite or a masters rider. Three of those have got to be female riders,” he explained.
“They [Dubbo] are by far favourites.
- Bathurst Track Open co-ordinator Glen Carter
“They [Dubbo] are by far favourites, it just depends how it stacks up because you’ve got to have three female riders and last year we didn’t put enough thought into it, into where the females lined up.
“Our girls were matched up against some of their boys which makes it very tough.”
Dubbo’s line-up could feature the likes of Australian road gold medallists Kurt and Dylan Eather plus Haylee Fuller, but Bathurst has plenty of talent to pick from as well.
Ebony Robinson, Tyler Puzicha, Eliza Bennettt and Kalinda Robinson may all be in action, along with Harrison Bryant, Luke Tuckwell and Harrison Carter.