Graeme Frislie wins Quest Ivanhoe 126th Austral Wheelrace

Graeme Frislie has added his name to the record books of Australia’s oldest cycling race, winning the Quest Ivanhoe 126th Austral Wheelrace at Darebin International Sports Centre Velodrome in Melbourne on Saturday night.

Starting off scratch with Kelland O’Brien and Conor Leahy, the trio quickly formed a big group of favourites with fellow backmarkers James Moriarty and Kurt Eather, both starting off 20m.

Moriarty and Eather, Frislie’s CCACHE x Par Küp teammates, pulled huge turns to bridge the gap to the converging front and middle groups on the track, the latter being where Liam Walsh had managed to place himself early from his 50m start.

Graeme Frislie has won the 126th Austral Wheelrace. Picture: Josh Chadwick

Contact was made between all groups with three laps to go, and Frislie put the onus on himself to move through the traffic, with O’Brien and Walsh grabbing his wheel as a trio of young guns in Sam Washington, Jack Dohler and Oscar Gallagher jumped slightly ahead of the main group.

Frislie bridged that gap and then pushed around the outside of newly crowned junior men’s omnium national champion Gallagher on the final bend of DISC to win from scratch.

O’Brien and Walsh finished second and third right on Frislie’s hip.

The 22-year-old's win was clocked at 1:55.03 - three seconds faster than O’Brien’s win last year, also off scratch.

Across a busy schedule of racing, other winners on Saturday included Thomas Cornish and Kristina Clonan in the UCI C1 keirins, while Taeho Choi and Kiwi Caitlin Kelly won the junior UCI keirins.

Two-time Paralympic gold medallist Matthew Gray won the Austral Para-cycling Wheelrace from 90m.

Blackburn Cycling Club juniors Alanah Lake and Benjamin Woods won the Junior Austral Wheelrace, with Lake doing so off scratch and Woods hanging tough as the lone front marker off 180m.

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Results

Feature picture: Josh Chadwick