The eighth Acciona Gunning Wind Farm Goulburn Great Divide was held over the weekend of November 13 and 14, and featured cycle racing which was combined with the elite, Under 23s, Under 19s and Master State Championships.
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The event was held on the Old Hume Highway between Gunning and Breadalbane, and attracted in excess of 550 entries.
The format for the racing involved individual time trials on the Saturday morning followed by several of the Masters Road Races in the afternoon which meant that some of riders competed is two events on the same day. The rest of the road races were all held on Sunday with riders completing between 47km and 142km depending on their age group.
The Master State Championships were originally scheduled to be held in Singleton, but were cancelled due to COVID restrictions, As a result, AusCycling (NSW) approached the Goulburn Cycle Club to co-host the championships with the local event.
To accommodate all the racing the number of races more than doubled from previous years. While there was some initial concerns with the scale of the event and extra requirements to ensure all entrants were double vaccinated, the club rose to the challenge.
The time trials attracted 170 entries, up from the 94 entries last year, while the road races had 381 entries, up from 155 entries last year. The event clearly benefitted from the cancellation of the Singleton event and the rescheduling of racing to coincide with the with the Great Divide.
The easing of COVID restrictions in NSW also had a positive impact on entry numbers with many riders looking to race after a lengthy period of no racing.
A week of rain over the course in the lead up to the event and a weekend of more wet weather and cold temperatures forecast did not present ideal conditions for a major event. The Saturday time trials were held in constant rain, but this did not deter riders who turned out to tackle the challenging course up the Cullerin Range. Most riders competed in the 20km course to the top of the range and back while the elite and Under 23 men completed the 47km course to Breadalbane and back.
The 47km Elite Men's Individual Time Trial was taken out by Daniel Luke (Albury Wodonga CC) but was ineligible for the NSW Championship. Jordon Louis (Sydney Velo), who used to race track with the Goulburn club, finished second but was awarded the State Championship medal.
The 21km Elite Women's event was won by Emily Watts (Sydney Velo) from Byron Bay's, Ainslie Bakker and Port Adelaide's Kim Pedersen.
Southern Highland's tandem cyclist Kevin O'Meley with pilot Scott Nolan took out first place in the para cycle event for the vision impaired. Kevin and Scott also backed up on Sunday to take out the 94km road race.
Former Goulburn rider Michael Payne, who now rides with the Canberra CC, took out the Men's Master 6 road race on Saturday afternoon from a large field but it was the second-placed Glenn Coleman (Southern Cross) who took out the State Championship medal.
Conditions were a little drier on Sunday but the wind came up and blew regular downpours on the riders. There was a fast tailwind to the turnaround in Breadalbane but a strong headwind tested riders on the return journey.
The 142km Elite Men's Road Race was won by Tom Bolton (Dulwich Hill) in a sprint finish from Bathurst's Will Hodges and Canberra's Ben Hill.
Also in a sprint finish Josie Talbot (Camden) took out the Elite Women's 94km race from Ella Falzarano (Manly Warringah) and Georgia Whitehouse (Sydney Velo).
Kurt Eather (Dubbo) won the Men's U23s for Luke Britten (Illawarra) and Lachlan Harrington (Jindabyne).
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