TASMANIAN professional cycling team Asfra has has done a smash and grab job at the Wagga Wagga McDonald’s Classic.
Asfra arrived in Wagga on Saturday, dominated proceedings and left late Sunday with all but the whole $20,000 prize money pool.
Orange Cycle Club riders Mick Troy and Owen Macphillamy witnessed the high-class riding and said there wasn’t much anyone could do to stop them.
“Cyclists from their team finished in first, second, fourth and fifth,” Macphillamy said.
“With the amount of prize money that was on offer there were a lot of big hitters at the meet.”
The pair were not embarrassed, though, with Troy finishing eighth in the 116km road race handicap in a strong field while Macphillamy, on the rebound from injury, was happy to finish the race in the bunch group.
“I was racing for a team in Belgium when my bike’s front tyre had a blow-out and I came off and went straight into a street sign,” he said.
“My knee hit the sign when I was doing about 60km/h and I was in hospital for a while. I couldn’t walk.
“To finish some of these races around here is a good sign that the injury is progressing well and hopefully soon I’ll be back competing strongly.”
In very windy conditions for Sunday’s criterium Orange rider Mark Tobin finished fifth in the E grade event while after a heavy head wind for Saturday’s road race Mick Troy failed to finish the criterium.
“After the cross-head wins on Saturday a few of us were struggling but in the criterium the wind built up for the A and B grade events and the sprint to the finish was quite fast. We averaged 41km/h for the race,” he said.
“Mick didn’t finish because he was exhausted from the handicap.
“He did well to finish in eighth in that one.”
Troy and Macphillamy will now focus their attention on August’s state titles, where they are expected to race as a team against some of the most polished cyclists in NSW.
“That’s the next biggest one for us,” he said.
“With Mike in the under 23s and me in the elites we’ll be riding in the same races and we should be able to work as a bit of a team. We want different results but we can help each other get them.”
