Last Saturday morning saw the initial running of the Beach Cup Golden Criterium on a tight 850m circuit on the Rockingham Beach foreshore and cafe strip.
It was intended to run both a men’s and women’s elite race, however, with several of the best female riders participating in the Tour of Margaret River, the women’s race was converted to a support race open to under-17 boys and girls, as well as C-grade men.
Melissa Robinson attacked on the second lap and built a small gap with Matthew Connan bridging the gap as the pair attempted to build a margin.
Dharlia Haines, Laura Hodges and Calum Milne worked together and slowly closed the gap.
By the halfway stage there were five riders at the front and behind them a chase group of four.
The leaders slowly extended their margin by riding at a steady pace, with a couple of tentative attacks quickly covered.
With five laps to go Connan attacked and quickly got a gap.
With two laps to go it looked like Connan was tiring, but the group then sat up on the next lap, more interested in their positions in their respective group rather than the outright win.
Connan kept working hard and took the outright win and was the top under-17 boys.
Haines took out the sprint for second and was top under-17 girl.
Laura Hodges was third and first open woman.
Tom Power led the second group over the line for first in the C-grade men.
In the men’s race the attacks started early and after a few laps it was Logan Calder and Henry Penell in a break; Jackson Mawby bridged across to them.
A counterattack then saw Matt Upton off the front and quickly joined by Mawby. With five laps to go Upton attacked and was quickly chased down before Mawby counterattacked and got a gap.
With a lap to go Mawby was faltering. Stephen Hall launched himself over the gap, closely pursued by Tyler Lindorff and Theo Yates.
In the three-rider sprint to the line it was Yates first, Hall second and Lindorff third — with Mawby fading to seventh.