FIVE seconds was all that separated Cowra's Jeremy Ryan from Western Division Cycling Championships time trial gold as Dubbo's Kurt Eather made a sweep of the day's A grade events last weekend.
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Ryan and Greenethorpe's Will Hodges, both of who ride with the Bathurst Cycling Club, won medals in the time trial and road race events in Geurie.
Ryan and Eather's time trial battle was a highlight from the event, with the Dubbo talent completing the 12 kilometre course in 16 minutes and 11 seconds (45.2km/h average).
Ryan came up just short of the mark but did enough to finish with the overall silver medal for the championships, thanks to his fourth placing in the road race.
"I'm an old bloke racing against some younger guys so it's mostly just a bit of fun. I don't really expect results so I was pretty pleased to do that," Ryan said.
"The time trial is probably my strong point. I'd done triathlon for a number of years and, while the road race is fun, there's no attacking and you just do it yourself.
"Kurt Eather is a strong, young man and to only be five seconds behind was really a big surprise.
"I was meant to be doing state [championships] in a couple of weeks so I thought my form was reasonably around where it should have been, so I guess that result proves that to be the case," Ryan said.
Sydney Uni Velo club rider Simon Hickey finished with the third fastest time of 16:33 while the bronze went to Dylan Eather with a 16:42.
Bathurst's Mark Windsor (16:59) rounded out the top five.
Ryan was part of a five-strong group which got away in the A grade road race, where Bathurst Cycle Club members initially outnumbered Dubbo in the pack thanks to the presence of Will Hodges, Ryan and Luke Tuckwell.
However, as feared, Kurt and Dylan Eather turned up the pace to try and shake off the Bathurst contingent and it worked.
Only Hodges could stick with them.
Dylan Eather lost touch with the duo before the sprint finish, where Kurt Eather held on by just three tenths of a second.
"It went pretty much as everybody expected. The Eather brothers and Will were a class ahead of everybody else," Ryan said.
"I hung on for as long as I could and ended up doing the rest of the race by myself. That's almost what club racing is like for me at the moment - hanging on for as long as I can then time trialling home."
Dubbo's Haylee Fuller rounded out the podium.
Bathurst club member Toiressa Gallagher was the bronze medal winner in the C grade time trial (19:46), finishing close behind Orange duo Xavier Bland (19:31) and Ray Straney (19:36).
Allen gave Bathurst a fifth medal with third place in the under 13s road race.