Cycling stars impress on big stage

Isla, who has a bright future in the sport, took out second place in the under-13 time trial, won the criterium around the streets of Bright and won the the road race, with her time bettering the course time from the previous year and helping her secure the general classification category win.

Archie put in an equally good shift on the bike, with the 1.93m youngster doing his bit to help out his team.

Not suited to the hilly event, Archie put up good numbers in the time trial, before being caught out of position in the criterium.

It was in the road race where Archie’s power shone through, with the rider set the task of chasing a break and doing it successfully.

Archie’s dad, Nick, who is one of Isla’s coaches, was full of praise for both youngsters.

He said it was Isla’s first big two-day event, with little expectation set for what she could achieve.

“To come through, she is just amazing, a beautiful peddler and a girl who has a massive future in front of her,” Davis said.

“She’s come a long way in 18 months to be doing as well as she is.

“She is definitely one of the best in the state.”

Davis said Archie was better suited to flat racing, with an upcoming event in Ararat more to his liking.

“Archie is 6ft 4in and 80kg, so he’s a powerhouse on the bike, so his job from the start was on the flat areas to chase and pull back any attack and then as soon as he got to the climb he was allowed the pleasure of easing up a bit,” Davis said.

Archie, from Yarrawonga, and Isla, of Shepparton, are both members of the Shepparton Cycling Club, with Davis explaining the club is only growing.

“They’re paving the way for the other juniors, Shepparton is really starting to build up a good base of juniors now,” he said.

Isla and Archie are not the only duo from the region flying on the bike this month, with married couple Brad and Rhianon Norton competing at the Australian Masters Track Championships in Brisbane.

Brad won his individual pursuit and time trial while Rhianon took out the 500m time trial, with an injury preventing her from taking part in the rest of her events.

Rhianon said it was good to see everyone at the event after two years of COVID-19 interruptions, with the race results a positive.

“I was happy with my personal best, I did 38.1 seconds for 500m so I was happy with that,” she said.

“The velodrome is a beautiful velodrome, we’re really lucky to be able to ride on that.

“We’ll look now to the next thing, which will be the road titles in September, and then back to the track for the following year again.”