Oldest bike race conquered

By Lachlan Ellis

A local cyclist has claimed Australia’s oldest cycling title, narrowly beating two rivals off scratch.

Bacchus Marsh’s Graeme Frislie won the 126th Austral Wheelrace at Darebin International Sports Centre Velodrome last month, at a record time to boot, clocking in at 1:55.03, three seconds faster than Kellan O’Brien’s win the year before.

But despite crossing the line in record time, Mr Frislie said it was a close race, with both O’Brien and Liam Walsh close behind him as he put on the jets.

“It was pretty cool. I’ve been watching that race for years now, so even to race in it was amazing. To win it was super special,” Mr Frislie told the Moorabool News.

“It was pretty close, it was full gas the whole way, and I didn’t know until I crossed the line that I’d won it. It’s been years and years that I’ve put into the sport, so this win was a combination of all that really.”

The weekend also saw Frislie claim gold at the Elite Men’s National Championship Omnium, and silver in the Madison.

Around this time last year he won the National U23 Championships Criterium for the second consecutive year, but he says there’s no secret to his success.

And his success, of course, is fuelling his ultimate ambition.

“There’s not really any secret, just keep your head down and work hard. The Christmas period was still pretty full-on for me, I had Christmas day off which was nice, then I flew down to Tassie on Boxing Day and raced through the Christmas Carnivals through until New Years, and straight up to Ballarat basically for Road Nats, and just got to Adelaide last Wednesday, so yeah, no rest,” Mr Frislie said.

“The Paris Olympics are definitely a big goal for me. The next race we’ve got coming up is the Nations Cup in Adelaide, so that’ll be a big selection event. I’m looking forward to that.”