The Under 19 Road Race was 9 laps of the iconic Mount Buninyong circuit, totalling 104.4 with a tough 3km climb of Mount Buninyong at the start of each lap.
After taking the win in the Individual Time Trial, Lachlan was, unfortunately, a heavily “marked man” with the best riders sitting on his wheel, determined not to let him break away from the peloton.
When Lachlan finally managed to break away in lap 7, he took the strongest riders with him and couldn’t break away from the lead group of 8 riders despite several attempts.
The finish resulted in a photo finish bunch sprint with Lachlan coming 7th, 4 seconds behind the winner. He knew that given sprinting is not his forte, he would not be able to win a sprint finish of that calibre so was very happy to finish only seconds down from the winner.
Lachlan also achieved the second-highest points for the King of the Mountain classification for the road race’s best climber.
Lachlan has now qualified in both disciplines for the UCI World Road Championships in Flanders (Belgium) in September but will decide to attend later in the year.
When the SBS commentator interviewed Lachlan after the time trial and realized he still had two years left at school, he asked Lachlan what his favourite subject was. Without hesitation, Lachlan said Maths! The commentator said, “love it, talent and brains”!