Debutant racer revels in dream victory

Peel District Cycling’s Dharlia Haines made sure the region was well represented on the big stage last week, claiming two silver medals at the National Junior Track Titles in Sydney.

Haines finished second in the under-17 women’s team pursuit representing WA, with her side falling by 1.64 seconds to South Australia.

In the points race, the Peel junior recovered from a crash only to narrowly miss out on victory behind Olivia Saunders, of New South Wales.

Oliver Bleddyn, Matthew Connan and Jordan Dawson also served their club well with a number of personal bests and top ten finishes.

Closer to home, the senior members of Peel travelled to Gnangara for round 10 of the Ring Criterium series but it was a raiding party from the South West Cycle Club in Bunbury, who took home the spoils.

The men’s A-grade had the strongest field seen this year with Michael Storer and Jai Hindley — recently signed to Orica Scott feeder team Michelton Wines — making an appearance at the Ring before heading off to Europe for a season of racing.

In the end, it was a very close bunch sprint with Leighton Cook taking the win narrowly from Michael Freidburg, second, and Bryce Lanigan, of SWCC, another few centimetres back in third.

Doug Stewart took the narrow victory from Daniel Trienne, with Ben Hastie third in the men’s B- grade while first-time racer E Min Loke attacked convincingly to win the men’s C-grade.

In men’s D-grade, SWCC’s Joshua Commons attacked on the first lap and held on to win by 30 metres from Ja-Yang Yen with Robert Commons third.

The A-grade women’s race ended in a bunch sprint with Sarah Duffield first, Natalie Britz second and Melissa Robinson third.

In the under-13s, Isabella Commons won ahead of Jordan Williams and Thomas Alexander.