Sport
14 February, 2025
Agnoletto wins Melbourne to Warrnie
AFTER a gruelling 267 kilometre race in wild and windy conditions on Saturday, cyclist Blake Agnoletto took out the 2025 Powercor Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic.
Wearing race bib number #1 after his team’s strong showing in the ProVelo Super League series so far, the 22 year-old emerged from a group of five riders as they raced up Raglan Parade in front a strong crowd to win Australia’s most historic one day race.
One hundred and 68 riders began the gruelling event at Avalon Airport earlier in the day.
The pace was on early, with several of the age-groupers succumbing to the pressure.
Inside the first 10 kilometres, Terence Hore (Duda Cycling) jumped off the front of the peloton, and he was soon joined by Tim Cutler (Team Royal Bikes).
The pair worked together to establish a lead that blew out to a six-minute gap, 60 kilometres into the race.
The pair shared turns at the front and soaked up the Deakin University Sprint classification points and the SRAM King of the Mountain classifications.
The duo remained out by themselves, while a group of three chasers (including Brendan Green from the Cycling Development Foundation), Evan Franzke (Saint Cloud Racing) and Ronan Teese (St George Continental) tried to bridge the gap before being absorbed back into the peloton.
The front runners were eventually caught at just over 183 kilometres into the race, having survived the blustery conditions for nearly a third of the race.
Once the riders were all back together, more competitors attempted to form up a breakaway as the cross winds played havoc.
Just after the 200 kilometre mark, an incident saw two riders and a member of the race personnel crash out, with all three treated by event medical staff before being transported to hospital.
The fractures at the front of the race continued to play out, with Agnoletto’s team-mate Oliver Bleddyn forgoing a 30- second gap as teams and individual riders all looked for an advantage.
A group of five emerged as genuine contenders a few kilometres out of town.
Bendigo-born Agnoletto, who is departing for Europe at the start of March to ride with ATOM6 (a Belgian Continental team), was the strongest of the group and made the most of all the hard work his team had done.
He outsprinted Scott and McKenzie to take the victory in a brutal six hours, 19 minutes and 29 seconds.
Speaking after the race, Agnoletto praised his team, saying it was the “most amazing team ride all day.”
“It (the win) is just unbelievable,” he said.
“People like Tim (Decker, team director and 2007 event winner) and Moff (Graeme Moffat, team manager) have done an amazing job putting this team together.
“As a team we wanted the win so bad and we got it done. The sprint just seemed to happen; I thought I was going to cramp, but I got it done and it feels incredible. What a team, what a day.”
Second place went to 2022 winner, Cam Scott.
“I wanted to win this again and honestly I did everything right, it was the ideal scenario for me,” he said.
“I knew there would be a lot of attacks and I had to be on them all straight away or it would have been very difficult to come to the finish in a position to go for the win.
“It came down to a sprint which is what I wanted, but I just got beat fair and square.”
Third-placed Hamish McKenzie said he was thrilled to be on the podium.
“I’m just grateful to line up for this event and to do it is super meaningful for me,” he said.
“I tried my best but Blake was just the best on the day.”
One hundred and eight riders finished the event, including Sydney Swans two-time premiership super star Ryan O’Keefe.
O’Keefe finished second in his age group of 35-44 year olds, racing in an event his grandfather had also competed in – and ticking off a bucket list ambition, 11.39 behind the winner.
Last year’s team pursuit gold medallist Conor Leahy finished in 24th place, four minutes behind the leader.
Local Tim Cutler (Team Royal Bikes) was in the breakaway for much of the day and took home the Anchor Point First Warrnambool rider classification.
He also took out the Deakin University Sprint green jersey and the polka dots of the SRMA King of the Mountain classification.
