A race to remember them

EUREKA Cycling staged the seventh edition of the Rising Sun Trophy on Sunday, 1 May.

The feature event was ridden in sunny and cool conditions, with a light northerly breeze ensuring the race would test every rider.

The scratch trio of Nick Locandro, Shane Nankervis and Michael Pierce, along with Dayne Pearce from the three-minute group, were able to ride through the entire field and arrive at the base of The Wall to battle each other for the victory.

Nankervis exploded onto the climb, with only Locandro able to stay with him.

Nankervis attempted multiple times to drop Locandro, however the latter was able to kick clear in the final 100 metres on the downhill section to the chequered flag.

Earlier in the race an incident saw two riders come to grief, with many other competitors stopping to assist their fallen comrades.

Thankfully only minor injuries were sustained and the riders who stopped, were able to re-join the bunch and after a concerted effort were able to pass everyone, except the scratch riders, to finish inside the top ten place getters.

Nick Locandro joins an illustrious roll of previous Rising Sun Trophy winners including, 2015 – Shane Miller, 2016 – Rob Phillips, 2017 – Graeme Parker, 2018 – Danny Whelan, 2019 – Tim Canny, 2020 – not held (COVID), 2021 – Tony Mirabella.

All proceeds from the Rising Sun Trophy are donated to local community. In 2022 the club is pleased to have raised $500 for the Ballarat Arch Of Victory / Avenue Of Honour, to assist with repairing damage to the Avenue after the damage from the storm in October 2021.

Rising Sun Trophy, 54-kilometre handicap results – 1st – Nick Locandro (scratch), 2nd – Shane Nankervis (scratch), 3rd – Michael Pierce (scratch), 4th – Stu Brien (1 min), 5th – Greg Ley (3 mins). Fastest Time – Nick Locandro (scratch) in 1h 21m 15s, ave. 39.4kph.

 

– BY DEAN WELLS