Northern Sydney brother and sister duo of Brendan and Katie Jones have taken out their respective divisions in the Kurrajong Classic, which also doubled as the NSW state titles on a tough and hilly course in atrocious weather conditions.
With last year’s winner John Ebeling a non starter today, due to competing in the Australian cycling grand prix in Victoria, the favourite going into the event was the inform Nash Kent, after 
winning the Ride for Life in Centennial Park, Sydney only a few weeks before. However it would be his team-mate Brendan Jones who would eventually come up trumps after attacking in the final lap.
How it unfolded…
The Elite race got of to a slow start for most of the competitors. A break away of five riders formed in the first lap and quickly gained a five minute advantage as the main field was reluctant to take up the case due to the poor weather conditions. It would take until the end of the third lap for the main peloton to reel the break back. Before anyone could catch their, eight riders rode off the front and gained a gap that would see them away until the finish.
The final ascent of the main climb blew the lead group a part Blair Martin lead Brendan Jones as they crested the climb with Brent Skippen & Nash Kent a further 30 metres back. The word from crackling CB voices coming from the commissaries radio’s was the group had reformed just over the climb. However, with 15km to go Brendan Jones attacked the group, with Blair Martin the only rider to stay with him.
With two kilometers remaining in the 165km event, Blair unfortunately punctured his rear wheel, no doubt due to the amount of debris that had washed onto the road from the rain, leaving Brendan Jones on his own to take the win in both the Kurrajong classic and the U/23 NSW road title. A disappointed Blair came in around a minute later, but could take condolence in winning the NSW elite title.
Earlier in the day Brendan’s little sister Katie rode to a convincing win in the women’s event ahead of Ashlee Ankudinoff (St George) and Lauren Kitchen (Port Macquarie) who has just returned from a successful trip to the junior world titles that saw her in the final break of the day, to eventually finish seventh. Showing the strength in depth that NSW has in women’s cycling, all the place getters in the combined elite and U19 women’s Kurrajong classic, were from the U19 division, no doubt these three have a bright future to look forward to in the sport.
The U/19 men’s was dominated by 3 riders, Dale Scarfe, Richard Lang and Brodie Talbot stamped their authority on the race early in the race. With Scarf and Lang both members of the real Aussie kid’s development squad Brodie was always going to have a hard race, especially with both team-mates recently returning from a successful trip to America where they raced a series of high profile criteriums on the US cuircuit.
Coming into the finish the three riders were all still together, Dale opened the sprint up early and showing the form which gained him second in the elite and U19 Ride for Life criterium just weeks ago, he took a convincing win, with Lang finishing second and Brodie suffering from cramps to take 3rd.
Daniel Vanechop kept Northern Sydney on the top step of the podium with a convincing win in Division 2, powering away in the closing km’s to hold off Ben Tavers (Peloton Sports). In Division 3, Grant Fraser (Central Coasts) upset the Northern Suburbs near perfect winning streak by taking out the Division 3 ahead of Sam Moorhouse (NSCC), who was clearly happy with his ride, giving a little 2 hand salute to celebrate as he crossed the line.
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| Photos (C) Brad Hooker | Cycling Images Online | Click images to enlarge |
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