Brendan Johnston and Courtney Sherwell win first edition of 246km Dirty Warrny

BUNINYONG AUSTRALIA JANUARY 16 Brendan Johnston of Australia crosses the finishing line on third place during the Australian Cycling National Championships 2022 Mens Elite Road Race a 1856km race from Buninyong to Buninyong AusCyclingAus on January 16 2022 in Buninyong Australia Photo by Con ChronisGetty Images
Brendan Johnston (Giant Australia) who won the elite men's category of the first Dirty Warrny racing earlier this year at the Australian National Road Championships in Buninyong (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Brendan Johnston (Giant Australia) and Courtney Sherwell are the first two entries in a new chapter of Melbourne to Warrnambool cycling history, delivering the fastest finishing times in the elite men’s and elite women’s categories of Australia's newest gravel event, the 246km Dirty Warrny.

Johnston, the 2020 winner of the Melbourne to Warrnambool road race and reigning Australian gravel champion, took victory with a time of 7:20:27 after distancing his companions in a leading trio as he came toward the line. Curtis Dowdell (Butterfields) came second and Mark O’Brien (InForm TMX Make) third. 

Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.