Australia’s stunning Snowy Mountains treated 1200 amateur cyclists to an incredible day of alpine cycling on Saturday, with Chris Pye and Charlotte Culver dominating the 120 kilmometre Snowy Classic gran fondo to win by huge margins.
Pye soloed across the finish line in 3:02:25, almost four minutes ahead of second place rider Alan Nelson (3:06:20), who at 60+ years-old is twice as old as Pye. Third was Steven Newman in 3:08:46.
Charlotte Culver was even more dominating, winning the women’s 120km race in 3:27:19 with an eighteen-plus minute gap over Amanda Miller and Gail Person.
The 170km race was won by elite racer Cameron Fraser who dropped three breakaway companions to win by 12 seconds with a time of 4:47:21. Torben Partridge-Madsen was next, followed by Lachlan Harrigan and Jesse Coyle, all with a time of 3:47:33.
Finishing 170km in 5:02:54, Samara Sheppard was the first women and also won both Queen of the Mountain competitions – Beloka (0:13:18) and Perisher (1:02:24).
Torben Partridge-Madsen took the Beloka King of the Mountains climb in 0:11:16, while Cameron Fraser claimed the Perisher in 0:52:11.
Afterwards, Steve Jaensch, who finished 182nd on the Perisher KOM and 212th on Beloka, commented on his day in “The Snowies.”
“They were beautiful roads, it was well organised, no accidents, no chaos, great marshalls and volunteers – it was awesome,” he told Bicycling Australia.
Adding, “That Beloka climb was pretty tough. Then the climb up to Perisher and that descent .. I loved that descent on the way back.”
Complete Snowy Classic Gran Fondo HERE.
PHOTOS: Snowy Classic
GRAN FONDO DAILY NEWS 