Australia’s Jay McCarthy has been unlucky to have finished two seconds back in 19th in the men’s cycling road race, while compatriots Michael Baker and Matt Dunsworth came in 43rd and 61st respectively in the 94 strong field.
Australia’s Jay McCarthy has been unlucky to have finished two seconds back in 19th in the men’s cycling road race, while compatriots Michael Baker and Matt Dunsworth came in 43rd and 61st respectively in the 94 strong field.
The tactics of many riders were questionable as they left McCarthy, the World Junior Championship runner up, to bridge a 40 second gap to the break away by himself on the last of five laps around the Singapore city streets before they left the Aussie high and dry to claim the top spots.
With many teams, including Australia, only a small chance of claiming a medal, McCarthy assumed that he would get some help from other cyclists riding for the individual victory.
“I was expecting like normal racing when a group like that is away and other riders are not a chance overall they’re normally the ones to get on the front and drive it back,” McCarthy said.
This however wasn’t the case as McCarthy decided he wasn’t going to die wondering , taking the initiative as he returned the chasing pack to the breakaway midway through the final lap.
“I wasn’t confident but I just got on the front and chased it down just so we could see what would happen when everyone came back together. When it came back together we just got swamped, the Belgium rider (Vallee) attacked and I had nothing left.”
McCarthy and Baker started confidently as they headed the main pack in the first couple of laps before a breakaway of three involving Latvia’s Andris Vosekalns, Belarus’s Kanstantsin Khviyuzau and Argentina’s Facundo Lezica opened a 20 second gap on the peloton.
The group fell back into the main pack midway through the third lap before Italian Andrea Righettini, Colombian Brayan Ramirez and Dane Michael Andersen made a move that would eventually cruel any chance McCarthy had of taking the win.
With no one chasing them down, McCarthy went to the front and claimed the three leaders before Vallee immediately attacked.
With nothing left, the Aussie couldn’t track down the Belgium, slipping back to 19th over the final 3 kilometres, as Portugal’s Rafael Ferreira Reis and Italy’s Nicolas Marini rounded out the top three.
“I’m still happy with my results,” said McCarthy.
“We don’t get much chance to race the rest of the world, so when you get the chance you want to make the most of it. I’m still holding my head high though.”
Baker, who made the move to road racing in 2010, fought hard for his 43rd as he finished in the main pack and was lucky not to go down on the final corner after another rider’s handle bars got caught in his pants and took him down.
BMX specialist Matt Dunsworth was always going to struggle to keep pace with the front pack, but did exceptionally well to not get lapped and help his team to claim much needed bonus points for having all three riders finish on the lead lap.
In his first, and potentially last, road race, Dunsworth was confident that if there a few more laps he may have worked himself back into contention.
“I think if the race was a bit longer I would have chased the guys down,” said Dunsworth with a laugh.
Fellow BMX rider Kirsten Dellar completed her third discipline when she took to the roads of Singapore’s Marina Bay in the women’s time trial.
Dellar, a BMX specialist in her first ever time trial, rode extremely well to record a time of 3:39.09 to claim 15th in what was a hot and humid morning in Singapore.
The 2.3km was taken out by Swiss junior road champion Linda Indergrand who stopped the clock at 3:18.00, 21.09 seconds ahead of the Aussie, with Czech Karolina Kalasova and Mexico’s Ingrid Drexel rounding out the top 3.
“I was pretty happy with my 15th, pretty good for a BMXer,” said Dellar.
“There were only two BMX riders that were in the top 16 so I’m pretty impressed.”
The road race and time trial wrapped up what was an exciting and unique four days of cycling competition with athletes being judged as a team, as results were combined to eventually crown the Colombia gold medallists, as Italy got the silver and Netherlands the bronze.
Australia finished up 11th, with Jay McCarthy’s second in the time trial and Kirsten Dellar’s runner up in the BMX being the highlights.
Matt Bartolo
AOC
