The Tamworth plumber broke away late to beat Fraser Ashford and Phil Kelleher in the A Grade criterium over 30 minutes and two laps while Justin Brooks beat Brad Roberts and Lachlan Mackay in the combined B and C Grade criterium over 25 minutes and two laps.

 Kelleher said racing was tough in the windy conditions.

“The wind was terrible,” Kelleher said.

“It made it very tough for us all.”

He said Carrington was in fine form.

“He broke away early after about 10 minutes but then Fraser and I bridged across.

“Then about five minutes from home Mitch went again and  we couldn’t catch him.”

Carrington said it had been a tough race “in that wind”.

“I tried to jump away a few times to test how Fraser was going. 

“Then he and Phil worked together to get across.

“ I went at a solid tempo and we all foxed a bit when they came across.

“Fraser had a couple of hard attacks too but once I got a gap on them in that wind...”

He has now won the last two crits but puts that down to the fact Sam Spokes has returned to Europe.

He said the young cycling star had been “too much of a good bloke” to ride as hard as he could in local crits.

“I’m sure he could have put the foot down and gone at any time here,” he said.

“But he was too good a bloke.

“Now he’s riding in the Tour of Andalucia racing against blokes like Wiggins and Valverde. The very best.”

On Saturday night the 21-year-old Spokes was able to place himself in a breakaway and finished 69th overall.

“Last year there was a big crash with 2km to go in this race,” Sam’s father, Alan Spokes said.

“He got caught in that but he missed this one.”