As the countdown continues until the UCI Road World Championships, Wollongong will be treated to a curtain-raiser when Australia's best young cyclists converge on the region next week.
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The National Junior Road Championships will kick off on Tuesday, with the elite competition split into time time trial, road race and criterium events. Three Illawarra Cycle Club members have been selected to represent NSW at the championships - Nate Burns, Gabriel Jakobsen and Lucy Allen.
The four-day competition - held in conjunction with the AusCycling Masters - will wrap up next Friday, ahead of the UCI Road World Championships getting under way in Wollongong on September 18.
For Figtree's Burns, the National Junior Road Championships will offer a chance for him to showcase his talent on home soil.
"It's pretty exciting to be able to represent NSW at national level, and to be able to race in my backyard is cool. It's my first time representing NSW and it's awesome to be recognised in the top few in the state and to race in those blue colours," the 15-year-old told the Mercury.
"The criterium track for the Wednesday will be really interesting, they've actually had to split it up into heats because the field is so big. And the other two courses [time trial and road race] are a little bit more common, but they're hillier than most courses than we do in the junior series.
"It's going to be survival of the fittest out there, it's going to be carnage."
Burns, who will represent NSW in the under 17s boys category, said he had high ambitions for the championships.
"The time trial is definitely my speciality of the three, so I'm hoping for a podium in that," he said.
"The ultimate goal is to win every race, but is likely not going to happen. I think road race is there to have fun and enjoy the race, and race with boys at a much higher level than state level."
Burns, Jakobsen and Allen are part of the Illawarra Cycle Club's junior development program, run by coach Jackson Law. Jakoben will represent his state in the under 15s boys category and Allen has been selected in the U/15s girls class, and it is the first time the duo have competed in these age divisions.
"It's so cool to have three boys and girls from our area selected in the NSW team, especially for Gabe and Lucy. They're both first-year 15s, so they've got a whole another year left in 15s after this one," Burns said.
"So they're the young kids but still in the top four or five in the state now which is amazing. They've both been awesome to watch this year."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
