CYCLING
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TAMWORTH’S Tori Saunders added the State U19 women’s 2000m individual pursuit title to her omnium gold in Sydney on Friday night.
Two weeks after winning the omnium title, the 16-year old pedaled her way to her first pursuit title in three years.
It was the start of a big weekend with Saunders also picking up bronze in the points race on Saturday and then the keirin yesterday.
“I was pretty happy,” Saunders said.
“The two events I got third in were events I was doing because we were down there.”
“The pursuit was the main aim.”
She was the fastest qualifier from the rounds by two seconds, and went on to win the gold medal ride-off by a second after overpowering long-time rival Nicola McDonald in the second 1km.
“I was down by almost half a second half way through but pulled it back,” she said. It was the opposite of what usually happens to her.
“Usually I go out hard and fade,” she said.
The win was especially sweet after she finished second to McDonald last year.
She was also delighted with the time.
“The time I did in the ride-off was the fastest time I’d ever done,” she said.
Next up on her radar is the omnium nationals.
They’re in Melbourne in a week and a half.
Her results on the weekend also saw her qualify for the state team to ride in the Nationals at the end of January.
While she was in Sydney, younger sister Jess was racing in Tasmania in the junior track series where she finished fifth in the criterium.
Meanwhile back in Tamworth yesterday Mitch Carrington and Sam Spokes shared the A/B grade honours in the latest round of the Tamworth Cycling Club’s criteriums.
The race ended in a sprint finish with Carrington and Spokes hitting the line together.
Martin Bennie won the C grade race from Jonathan Sanders and Peter Nash.
Numbers were down a bit, a symptom of Saturday’s Keepit Real 100 with 18 of the club’s riders competing in that.
n Armidale’s Mitch Bullen was riding overnight in the sprint event at the Track Cycling World Cup in London.
On Saturday night (Sunday morning AEDT), reigning world champion Amy Cure won Australia’s first gold medal of the meet with a one-point victory in the women’s points race. The 21-year-old scored points in the first two sprints and was one of seven riders who stole a lap halfway through the 80-lap event. She had been on Friday part of the women’s pursuit team which won silver.