EUREKA Cycling staged the seventh edition of the Rising Sun Trophy on Sunday, 1 May.<\/p>\n
The feature event was ridden in sunny and cool conditions, with a light northerly breeze ensuring the race would test every rider.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Nankervis exploded onto the climb, with only Locandro able to stay with him.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the race an incident saw two riders come to grief, with many other competitors stopping to assist their fallen comrades.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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