Madison champ captures award

AN Australian Madison championship has put gun cyclist Blake Agnoletto in the running for Bendigo’s Sports Star of the Year award for 2023.

Agnoletto was in hot form throughout December on the track at Darebin near Melbourne and his hometown of Bendigo.

A member of Cycling Australia’s track endurance squad based in Adelaide, Agnoletto teamed with Kell O’Brien to win the Australian Madison at Darebin.

A tally of 67 points marked an emphatic win by the duo.

It was Agnoletto’s first national madison win and a fourth for O’Brien whose outstanding record includes back-to-back Bendigo International Madison victories in 2018 and 2019 when he teamed with Sam Welsford.

A brilliant run in December by Agnoletto included returning to the Tom Flood Sports Centre to contest the Bendigo leg of the Christmas carnivals.

He put in a brilliant performance off scratch to win the Lindsay Harrington Memorial Wheelrace ober 2000-metres, sponsored by the Harrington family and MG Bendigo.

It was Agnoletto’s second victory in the long-running classic.

A winning run kept rolling at this month’s Cycling Australia road nationals in Ballarat.

Racing in the ARA Skip Capital colours, Agnoletto sprinted to victory in the under-23 criterium.

Gold followed silver in the under-23 criterium a year earlier.

Agnoletto also raced the time trial and the road race where he achieved placings of sixth and 12th on the tough Buninyong circuit.