Inverell rider Dylan Sunderland has surprised himself by overcoming jet lag, and the effects of gruelling overseas tours, to star at the annual Tamworth Cycling Festival.
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The 23-year-old only arrived home last Wednesday after competing in the seven-day Tour of Utah, in the US, but still won the division-one criterium in Tamworth's CBD on Saturday afternoon and the Nemingha to Nundle Handicap Road Race on Sunday morning.
Sunderland was struck down with a virus during the Tour of Utah, and "wasn't expecting anything" performance wise this weekend.
He regards his win in the criterium as fortuitous, as three riders crashed on the final corner while chasing him. "I wouldn't have won if they'd stayed upright."
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In the 100-kilomertre Nemingha to Nundle, he started off scratch and despite "not feeling the best", took advantage of windy conditions to catch the leaders.
"Three of us went off the front with 50km to go, then, I think, it was 10km to go and I went by myself," he said.
The two other rides were Tamworth's Fraser Ashford, who finished second, a minute and a half behind Sunderland, and Newcastle's Daniel Sullivan, who finished fourth. Oliver Clarke, of Brisbane, was third. Ashford also finished second to Sunderland in the criterium.
Sunderland, a first-time winner of the road race, said: "I just used my experience to position it well, and I did everything tactically right," he said.
He will take a short break now in what has been the best year of his career.
He recently finished fourth in the general classification at the Tour de Savoie Mont-Blanc, which weaved through the Swiss Alps.
Team BridgeLane, whom he rides for, won the tour and also won this year's Tour of Japan. He narrowly missed out on a podium finish in the former. "Which is quite impressive, I've been told, considering I was doing a lot of work for my teammate [Adelaide's Chris Harper], who actually won the tour."
Meanwhile, Tamworth riders tasted success at the festival's hill climb (Treloar Park to the top of Oxley Lookout) on Saturday morning, with Justin Roberts winning the mountain bike race and Steven Roberts claiming the road/TT bike race.
Tamworth's Conor Noonan and Lachlan Butters were second and third, respectively, in the mountain bike race while Inverell's Brent Rees and Ashford were second and third in the road/TT bike event.
