RUBY Roseman-Gannon and Blake Quick will take hot sprinting form into the Australian road cycling championships after dominating the Bay Classic criteriums.<\/p>\n
They took out the Lexus of Blackburn series for the first time after winning the races last weekend in Geelong.<\/p>\n
After Roseman-Gannon outsprinted fellow breakaway rider Matilda Raynolds on Sunday, Quick made the most of strong teamwork to take out the bunch sprint in the men’s elite race.<\/p>\n
Roseman-Gannon and Quick will be among the favourites for Friday’s national elite criteriums in Ballarat.<\/p>\n
“This event has been monumental in my development as a rider and building the confidence to make it to the WorldTour,” Roseman-Gannon said.<\/p>\n
“It gives me a bit of confidence coming into next week. The form’s good and hopefully I can execute next week as well. I’m excited.”<\/p>\n
Quick also hopes to be prominent next Sunday in the elite men’s road race at Buninyong, which is more a climber’s race.<\/p>\n
“A bit of both would be good – I’m definitely going to have a dig in the road race as well, but the crit probably suits me a bit better,” the 2018 world junior Madison champion said.<\/p>\n
“I’m kind of an ‘in-between’ rider.”<\/p>\n
Roseman-Gannon, 23, has joined top Australian team\u00a0BikeExchange Jayco on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n
The Victorian broke away with Reynolds before halfway in Sunday’s race.<\/p>\n
She had hoped to set up the race for teammate Grace Brown, but the Tokyo Olympian was unable to bridge the gap and finished 17 seconds behind in third.<\/p>\n
In the men’s race, Bentley Biquet-Olden misjudged a corner on the Eastern Gardens circuit and fell heavily, suffering multiple lacerations.<\/p>\n
Top Australian rider Simon Clarke made a solo charge at the start of the last lap, but he was never going to stay clear of the bunch.<\/p>\n
Quick’s teammate Brenton Jones, a former Bay Classic series champion, led him out perfectly to the tight last corner.<\/p>\n
Quick powered away to beat Jensen Plowright, with Jones third.<\/p>\n
“It’s really good to win. It puts me up alongside some big hitters,” Quick said.<\/p>\n
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