Warrny winner back in awards race

VICTORY in last month’s Melbourne to Warrnambool road cycling classic has put Blake Agnoletto in the race for the Bendigo Sports Star of the Year award for 2025.

The gala awards are now in their 60th year.

A multiple finalist in Sports Star, including last year, Agnoletto was in superb form in the 267-kilometre duel on the windswept roads and some tough climbs.

Racing for Team Brennan he won the showdown in six hours, 19.29 minutes.

Victory in the longest one-day road race in the world is Agnoletto’s greatest achievement so far in road racing.

He joined Team Brennan coach Tim Decker as a Melbourne to Warrnambool champion.

Both have also won the Bendigo International Madison track classic.

After his winning charge to ‘Bool, Agnoletto was back on the track at Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane where he struck gold in the elite men’s elimination final.

He teamed with Oliver Bleddyn to be runner-up in the men’s madison.

After a short stop in his hometown of Bendigo, which included being at the Sports Star of the Year gala presentation night at All Seasons, Agnoletto headed back to Europe.

First stop was training in Belgium and then on to Turkey to compete in the UCI Nations Cup on the Konya velodrome.

Agnoletto’s campaign in the Cup was in the teams pursuit where he works toward being part of the squad to contest this year’s UCI world track cycling championships in Chile.

Australia’s team in the Nations Cup included another of Bendigo’s stars, Alessia McCaig who was a bronze medallist in the teams pursuit at last year’s world track titles.

A multiple national track champion, McCaig added another monthly Sports Star award in ’24 to a collection of trophies.

There was no January winner for this year’s Sports Star awards.