Quick and Rosemon-Gannonride to career-defining Crits win

THE two winners from stage one on Saturday have again reigned supreme on the concluding day of this year’s Lexus of Blackburn Bay Crits.

Blake Quick (Inform TMX Make) and Ruby Rosemon-Gannon (Lexus of Blackburn) were dominant on both days over the weekend, securing an impressive performance at this year’s Bay Crits in Geelong.

A nasty crash might have headlined the men’s race, but all riders in this year’s event had to work hard in the superb sunny conditions at Eastern Gardens for the final stage of the event.

Dalton Stretton and Liam White energised the race and got out to a 23 second lead with 10 minutes to go.

White attacked with a few laps remaining and rolled the dice in the hope that he could gap the opposition, but in the end was unsuccessful.

Simon Clarke again animated the race before the pack tightened again and Inform TMX MAKE took control, pushing Blake Quick to the line again ahead of Jensen Plowright and teammate Brenton Jones.

In the end, Blake Quick took out the biggest win of his career here on home soil.

“It was very chaotic, everyone was racing for the last corner, obviously you couldn’t make up a lot of ground, you had to slow down a lot going into the corner,” Quick said following the win.

“Jenson on the outside, BJ on the inside, I held him out a bit and from there it was the quickest man wins.”

The women’s race was no walk in the park either, as two of the big teams featured prominently from start to finish with Catalina Soto (Lexus of Blackburn) and Eloise Sandow (Inform TMX MAKE) jumping off the front and opening a gap that became as large as 50 seconds.

Twenty minutes of riding saw the peloton reeled back in after elevating start, but there was an immediate counterattack from the same two teams albeit different riders.

This time the breakaway duo had plenty of firepower with Saturday’s stage winner in Rosemon-Gannon (Lexus of Blackburn) and Matilda Raynolds (Inform TMX MAKE) making the pace.

The two pre-race favourites put the foot down, to open a 40 second buffer.

At the midway point Grace Brown (Lexus of Blackburn) tried to bridge the gap riding solo, and she managed to work hard enough between the leaders and the chasers to pick up third place.

The race in two came down to a sprint that Roseman-Gannon was always going to have the upper hand with, and she jumped on the final corner after the uphill drag, taking the stage win and the overall Lexus of Blackburn Bay Crits title.

“We wanted to make it aggressive,” Roseman-Gannon said.

“Both Grace Brown and I are strong riders, I was hoping that move would put the pressure on bit I only heard she went solo with three laps to go, and I was hoping that if I eased off the pace she would make it across, but I think at that point the gap had expand a bit too much.

“It was a team effort today and I appreciate all the effort from my team.”

The final results of the two days gave both Quick and Roseman-Gannon 24 points in the standings and the outright win from start to finish.