The ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast team will descend on Ballarat tomorrow on the hunt for victory at the Aus Cycling National Road Championships.
A full squad of nine women and twelve men will be supported by nine staff for the week-long event, in a bid to take home one of several green and gold jerseys up for grabs.
The Sunshine Coast based team head into the National Championships after a big week in Adelaide in mid-January, competing at the Santos Festival of Cycling. Due to COVID-19 this event came to life as a revamped domestic version of the Tour Down Under.
The men’s and women’s teams had a string of success at the Adelaide event culminating in multiple top 5 and 10 performances against the most elite cyclists in Australia.
Ruby Roseman-Gannon was the standout for the team with a second place in two stages and a third place overall in the General Classification (one second off 2nd place). Ruby also took out the Sprint Jersey classification.
“The Santos Festival of cycling was a really fun first race and was thrilled to be in such strong form. I’m super keen for Nationals and even more racing with the best team,” Ruby said.
Managing Director Ben Kersten believes racing in Adelaide has set the team up for a strong performance at the Nationals.
“We normally start the year with a bang at the National titles but this year it got pushed back behind the Tour Down Under. It gives the riders who were a bit underdone nearly two more weeks to fine tune their engines before trying to win a Green and Yellow jersey. And for the ones that are stomping like Ruby, it just gives them confidence that they are right on target. Everyone is taking positives out of their results down in Adelaide.”
Craig Wiggins is one the latest signings for the team, who are based at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Craig, who relocated from W.A to join the team, bolsters their sprint squad and is one to watch in the U23 Criterium.
“The team and I are really keen to be heading to the National Road Champs. We’ve been pumped up from the Tour Down Under and are super keen to get that result we’ve been knocking on the door for,” Craig said.
The Fed Uni Road Nationals will commence Wednesday 3rd Feb with the individual time trials, followed by the criterium on Friday and finishing with the road races on the weekend.
