Benjamin Coates (Manly Warringah) has taken line honours in the men junior road race at the Westbridge Funds Road National Championships, raising his bike above his head to celebrate a powerful win in Perth.
The young rider covered the 108km in 2 hours 39 minutes, soloing to victory in front of Western Australia’s Connor Wright and Victoria’s Alistair Forsyth.
“I wasn’t super confident coming into this race, I didn’t have the time trial that I wanted,” Coates said.
“About five laps in I was cramping and I felt really bad, but I came good on the last two laps and I launched an attack with 8km to go in the hard section. I knew not many people would chase me around there.”
Coates, who recently signed for the development team of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, has been the road race national champion at under-15 level. Today's victory, however, is certainly the biggest result of his young career.
“It means so much to me; I didn’t have the year I wanted to have last year, I had a few hardships and I didn’t get any victories. It means a lot.”
- Benjamin COATES (Manly Warringah) 2h39:29
- Connor WRIGHT (ARA Skip Capital) +18
- Alistair FORSYTH (Ballarat Sebastopol) +18
- Lachlan STEWART (Alpine) +19
- Maxx NUSPAN (Butterfields Ziptrack Racing) +24
Photos: Chris Auld and Zac Williams