It was Dubbo Masters cyclists' time to shine at their state titles in Sydney at the weekend. Dubbo sent 10 riders to the championships, under the watchful eye of coach Gus Dawson and Masters team manager Ray Wheeler. At the championships Dubbo Cycle Club was awarded the prestigious, NSW Cycle Club of the Year for 2018.
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After being ranked number 5 in Australia the award of top NSW Cycle Club is one that the community of Dubbo can be very proud of. Results already in 2019 in the Junior, Elite and now Masters categories are such that the club will look to go back to back. The familiar figure of Simone Grounds was consistently on the top step of the podium at the Masters Championships. Grounds, who was also awarded the 2018 Masters Track rider and the Masters Road rider of the year was the rider of the meet.
She started her championships in the unfamiliar sprint event. Despite being an endurance rider the quality of grounds was such that she was still able to take silver in that event. Then it was on to gold in the time trial, gold in the points race, gold in the individual pursuit and gold in the scratch race. Grounds capped off her weekend leading the Dubbo women's pursuit team to silver. The team of Grounds, Catherine Fuller, Heather Ticehurst and Karen Bracht were beaten by a well-drilled team from Hunter Districts Cycle Club. This was a fantastic accomplishment by these women who would form a more imposing team in their preferred mountain biking discipline. Ticehurst also joined Grounds on the podium in the time trial, taking the bronze.
The male riders rose to the challenge. Tim Hines has been in fine form all season and came home from these championships with a nice collection of medals. Deciding to concentrate on the endurance events Hines started his competition with a silver medal in the time trial before taking home his first gold in the 15km points race. He backed up this winning performance with another gold in the scratch race before adding another silver medal to his collection in the individual pursuit.
Sam Fitzgerald, contesting his first masters event after graduating from the elite rider category, showed his form by taking gold in the gruelling time trial. The 1km sprint is one of the most difficult races to perform in. Familiar names in Australian cycling, Darrell Wheeler and Graeme Peadon both took silver in their sprint categories before contesting the time trial where Wheeler took the gold with Peadon in silver in their respective categories. Wheeler duplicated this excellent result with gold in the points race while Peadon came home in the following final in bronze.
Peadon missed gold in the Individual Pursuit by only half a second to finish in second while in the final scratch races Wheeler took silver with Peadon claimed bronze. Jason Farr took silver in his pet sprint event while finishing just off the podium in fourth in the time trial and the scratch race.
