Bendigo teenager Isaac Buckell has become the youngest winner of the prestigious Melbourne Cup on Wheels cycling classic.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 16-year-old outsprinted a class field to win the 2000m wheelrace at the Darebin International Sports Centre.
Buckell joins Australian cycling greats Russell Mockridge, Sid Patterson, Danny Clark and Dean Woods on the Melbourne Cup on Wheels honour roll.
He’s the second Bendigo product to win the race in six years, after Glenn O’Shea won the 2011 and 2015 events.
“It feels pretty good to be the youngest winner in 80 years of the race,’’ an elated Buckell said.
Racing off 85m in the handicap event, Buckell won from Godfrey Slattery (55m) and New Zealand star Campbell Stewart (scratch).
“My aim was to just make the final,’’ Buckell said.
“I was lucky to get through my heat and then tried to ride a smart race in the final.
“In the final I was off 85m and the field bunched up really quick. There were a few early attacks, but I just let them go.
“Going into the last lap I was in second wheel and going into the home straight I came around the outside, hit the front and managed to hold on.”
Buckell, who is coached by Mark Fenner and is also part of the Shane Kelly-led Victorian Institute of Sport program, is just as talented on the road and on a mountain bike.
The Bendigo Senior Secondary College student will head to Canberra for next weekend’s national road racing championships.
“I like riding them all,’’ Buckell said of track racing, road racing and mountain bike racing.
“I like to switch up and I never get sick of any of them. Mountain bike riding is a lot of fun because of the jumps.”