Lauren Bates (Meridian Blue p/b 99 Bikes) and Australian U23 time trial champion Zachary Marriage (Butterfields Ziptrak Racing) claimed victory in the stage 2 time trial at the Q Tour on Saturday, which is delivering the final round of racing in Australia’s ProVelo Super League.
Marriage swept the hilly 8.6km Samsonvale men’s time trial in 11:08 on Saturday morning, stretching out a gap of more than 12 seconds to his nearest rival Tristan Saunders (Team Brennan p/b TP32) while Olympic team time trial gold medallist Conor Leahy (CCACHE x Bodywrap) was third more than 18 seconds back.
That win also gave Marriage 20 points more on the overall series leaderboard though his key rival, overall and U23 leader Jack Ward (Team Brennan p/b TP32) came fifth and therefore secured ten points. That meant the gap was only reduced by ten points, still leaving Marriage with a 33 point deficit to make up in the final two stages of racing of the first year of the series.
“Pretty happy with that result,” said Marriage in an interview posted on the ProVelo instagram story. “Finally got a stage win and a bit closer to Jack Ward in the points as well. I mean he came fifth so really good ride by him but its good to get a little bit closer.”
Bates crossed the line with a time of 12:53 in the women’s race, over four seconds ahead of Alli Anderson (Butterfields Ziptrak) while 11 seconds back it was teammate Sophie Edwards that came third. Series leaders Sophie Marr (Praties) came sixth, which meant she was out of the stage points while Anderson’s 16 points helped her knock at least a little more off her deficit, along with the ten points she earned for fifth on stage 1.
Anderson, who is in third on the overall series leaderboard, is now 55 points behind Talia Appleton (Praties) and 128 points behind Marr.
The racing continues with a stage 3 road race on the Lakeside Raceway Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday the series concludes with 111.7km of racing through the Moreton Bay Hinterlands for the men and 90.3km for the women, with both races ending in a hilltop finish. The winners of the under 23 categories of the new league will secured riders with Jayco-AlUla and the Liv-AlUla-Jayco Continental Team.
