Exciting road action in quest for Cup

State and international-level cyclists will battle it out for top honours later this month in the inaugural Rockingham Beach Cup Golden Criterium.

The event will coincide with a weekend of festivities, including horse racing on the beach, an arts festival and a corporate golf day.

The 850m course will see riders start at the foreshore on Rockingham Beach Road, cycle up Railway Terrace, along Kent Street, down Flinders Lane and back to the starting position. Participants will include Theo Yates, Stephen Hall and Melissa Robison, who have between them dominated local, State, national and international competitions in their careers.

Criterium organiser Peter Hornberg said the event would be eagerly contested and a real spectacle for the public. “We have opened it up to A-grade riders only, which includes people that have been competing internationally over the winter season,” he said.

“Because it is such a tight circuit, we want to make it a marquee race so we have capped it at 40 riders per division.”

Mr Hornberg said he expected competitors to cycle at speeds between 45-56km/h on the circuit.

Rockingham Beach Cup organiser Michael McCafferty said the cycling would be another string to the major event’s bow.

There will be four races, including girls and boys under-17s and elite women’s and men’s. The first race will start at 8.30am on Saturday, November 11. Visit rockinghambeachcup.com.au.