Darwin Cycling Club

On Tuesday Bobridge became the second fastest man ever over 4km on his way to a win in the individual pursuit and last night was a member of the South Australian team that set a Championship record to win gold in the 4km teams pursuit. Tonight he notched up 41 points in the 40km (160 lap) race winning three of the 16 intermediate sprints and placing second in a further seven sprints. West Australian Luke Durbridge, the 2009 junior World Champion in both the road time trial and Madison, had a briliant elite debut to claim the silver medal with 35 points. Mitchell Mulhern from Queensland finished third after grabbing a 20 point bonus for lapping the field three quarters of the way through the race.

"I knew it was going to be hard from the start today and I went into the race with only one team mate, Matt Benson, and he rode his heart out for me tonight," said Bobridge. "It was always going to be hard riding against the other states, particularly with (Michael) Freiberg and Durbridge out there.

"I knew it would be hard to roll them and it could have gone either way with me and Luke tonight, but I managed to get a few more sprint points than him along the way, but he really stuck it out ot the end of the bike race".

The event was raced at a frenetic pace which took its toll on several riders including Tasmania's Peter Loft who gained a lap at the same time as Mulhern to move into equal first place with Bobridge with 35 laps remaining. However Bobridge almost immediately launched a counter attack that left Loft floundering. Loft was then lapped losing the points he had gained.

"Unfortunatly for Loft, things like that happen," said Bobridge. "You take a lap and you have to be ready for the counter attack, so he is a bit unucky to lose it, but I think he will learn from that.

"My main goal for this Championships was to ride the IP (individual pursuit) and qualify a good time for myself as I haven't been to any of the World Cups, so I just wanted to come here and show I am capable to riding the IP at Worlds," said Bobridge who still has the scratch race and onium on to contest over the weekend. "I think in the scratch race and the omnium, if I manage to get a medal there, it will be a lottery, but I will get out there and have another crack and see what I can do."

In the elite men's team sprint, the ACT team of Alex Bird, Daniel Ellis and Gary Ryan clocked 46.215sec for the three lap event to defeat the New South Wales team of Paul Fellows, Peter Lewis and Andrew Taylor (46.456sec).

The ACT qualified fastest for the gold medal round where Alex Bird posted a blistering 17.938sec first lap before swinging off for Ellis who completed the second lap by which time NSW almost a second off the pace. Ryan powered home to give ACT the win.

"It is great to finally bring home the gold for the ACT in the team sprint as we have always been up there, with silver and bronze in the past two years," said Ellis, who won the sprint on Wednesday night.

Ellis will try and make it three gold medals when he lines up in Saturday's keirin.

"It is every athlete's dream to take out every event they ride in, but there is going to be some tough opposition with (Scott) Sunderland, (Alex) Bird and hopefully (Jason) Niblett, but I will give it my all."

Bird was thrilled to win the gold medal.

"I have been hunting this for the whole season and although my personal time hasn't been what I wanted of late I came here tonight to lay out the best I could," he said. "When I went to the line, I tried to relax myself by convincing myself that it was not a race, that I was in training, and when we got to the first change, I knew we were on."

The South Australian team of James Glasspool, Mark Glowacki and David Miller were awarded the bronze medal.

In the women's 3km teams pursuit reigning World Cup Champions Josephine Tomic and Sarah Kent were joined by Melissa Hoskins with the West Australian trio successfully defending their Australian title.

WA held the lead from start to finish, catching their Tasmanian opponents Belinda Goss, Amy Cure and Emma Lawson inside the final kilometre to take their third consecutive crown. Within reach of their own Championship record set on the same track last year, the trio continued riding to clock 3min36.857sec, an agonising four thousandths of a second outside the record.

“We all came in with pretty good form, and we were looking to go 3.25, but it didn’t happen because it got a bit messy passing the Tasmanians,“ said Kent who, with Tomic and New South Wales’ Ashlee Ankudinoff, went within one second of the team pursuit World Record at last month’s Beijing round of the World Cup Series.

After claiming bronze in the women's individual pursuit and silver in the points race, Tomic was pleased to break through for her first gold medal of the Championships.

“I have had a bit of an up and down Championships so far and I was a bit disappointed in my pursuit,” said Tomic, “But I refocused and to come out today and get up on to the top of the podium, I am very happy and hoping to continue the form in my next two events.”

Tomic now sets her sights on Sunday’s women’s omnium where as reigning World Champion, she will be able to parade her rainbow jersey for the first time. The omnium consists of five events with the most consistent performer across the day claiming the crown.

“I am really looking forward to the event, but with the (rainbow) jersey comes a bit of pressure and I am just hoping my legs keep getting better and I can put in some good rides and defend my title on Sunday," said Tomic.

The omnium has been added to the program for the 2012 Olympic Games in London where it will include flying lap, increased distances for the pursuit, points and scratch races, a time trial and an extra event, the elimination race. The women's team pursuit has also been added to the Olympic program.

Victoria’s Tess Downing, Helen Kelly and Miranda Laidlaw took the bronze medal after defeating Western Australia’s U19 team of Jessica Allen, Isabella King and Michaela Anderson.

Victoria crossed the line in 3min32.258second, but the consolation for the WA trio was that their time of 3min32.933second set an U19 All Comers and Australian Championship record.

Newly crowned sprint champion Kaarle McCulloch added the keirin title to her collection in a somewhat confusing finish. McCulloch jumped her rivals with one and half laps to go and hit the front only to hear what sounded like the gun to stop the race. It was, instead, the sound of a tyre blowing followed by the crash of Cassandra Kell and Melissa Hoskins crashing at the back of the race. The remaining four riders then realised the race was still on and McCulloch added some speed to easily win the title ahead of Annette Edmondson (SA) with Ting Ying Huang, a vsiting rider from Chinese Taipei, finishing in third place.

"I have trained really hard for this meet and I have now equalled what I did in 2008 by winning three titles, so hopefully on Sunday in the time trial, I can get my fourth," said McCulloch. "The crash did really affect me although it was behind me, as I thought a gun went off, so I backed right off the gas.

"But it was actually Cassie's wheel blowing, and then I saw the Commissaire wave her arms to go, so I had to start again," she explained. "In the race, I just wanted to go and make one move, but because of that I had to take two moves overall and keep going after that, but it all worked out well."

Meantime Hoskins, who had literally gone from the teams pursuit podium to the keirin start line, was philosophical about her fall.

"I just got caught up when one girl fell in front of me, so a bit disappointing as I enjoy keirin racing," said Hoskins. "I was really looking to give the girls a nudge in the final, but there was nothing I could do.

"I find it (keirin racing) exciting and there is no pressure on me. It gets the adrenalin going, and after winning the gold medal with the girls, you are pumped to keep racing."

In other events, Victoria's Maddison Hammond took his second gold medal of the Championships with his victory in the men's U19 keirin.

Hammond, who won the sprint title earlier in the week, breezed through the qualifying rounds before powering over the top of South Australia's Matthew Glaetzer in the final metres to win the race.

Glaetzer held on for the silver medal, with Hammond's Victorian team-mate Aaron Cooper claiming bronze.

"I am over the moon, I wasn't feeling too good this morning, so I just rested up and had ice baths and it all paid off," said Hammond. "On the start line, I nearly crashed trying to get Glaezter's wheel, so after that I just relaxed and waited for the right moment and hit it and it turned out perfectly."

Western Australia's Isabella King claimed her second medal of the night with a win in the U19 women's scratch race ahead of the reigning Junior World Champion, Amy Cure of Tasmania.

"I am really stoked, I have been working really hard in training and I had some really top class competitors in the race like Amy so I am really happy to come through with this win.

"It is really great having people like Josie (Tomic) and Sarah (Kent) to train with and learn from, so hopefully next year, I can try and match it with them in the seniors."

WA's Michaela Anderson secured the bronze medal.