Scotson wins U23 national title to complete the double

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Miles Scotson added his name to the list of U23 riders to have won the road race and time trial at the same Australian national championships to cap off a successful week of racing for the SASI team. Scotson soloed over the line with a time of 3:22:57 minutes having attacked from the remnants of the day's breakaway and joins Jonathan Davis (2003), Jack Bobridge (2009) and Rohan Dennis (2012) in winning the double.

Alexander Edmondon won the sprint for second place, 36 seconds down on Scotson, with Alistair Donohue claiming the bronze medal at the conclusion of the 132.6km race.

"That’s what kind of inspired me," Scotson said of joining the riders to have done the U23 double. "I was pretty excited after the time trial I sent Jack Bobridge a message that night to congratulate him. He said ‘rest up, only the good guys do the double.’ That got me thinking that maybe I wasn't done yet. I worked pretty hard for the time trial and I refocused and for me, still a long shot to win the road race but I felt good early on today."

With a breakaway of seven riders already established, Scotson attacked on the climb to bridge the gap and join the leaders on the road. Joining Scotson was Dan Edwards, Ben O'Connor and George Tansley and quartet's added firepower to the break saw its lead increase to over three minutes. Darcy Woolley and Alex Grunke were the next riders to try to bridge the gap to the front break with seven of the 13 laps to go.

At the front of race, Jason Lea, Callum Scotson and Aiden Bowe were dropped by the leaders who quickly built a one minute advantage. Scotson then punctured with five laps to go as the peloton, being driven by Avanti, started to up the chase. With race favourites Jack Haig and Robert Power in the peloton, the break knew the chase would come and the lead started to hover around the two minute mark.

With the pace increasing, the leaders were reduced to five riders, D.Edwards, Scotson, D.Fitter, G.Tansley and B.O'Connor, while the peloton was reduced to just 15 riders with three laps left to race. When the break came around for two to go, Scotson led over the line and then attacked up the climb to go solo. Fitter was the first rider to try and chase him down while the peloton was coming together and swelled to 37 riders. 

When the bell rang for the final lap, Scotson's advantage had ballooned out to over a minute with Fitter giving chase, and followed by teammate Edwards, while the peloton crossed the line 1:41 minutes in arrears all but guaranteeing Scotson victory if he stayed upright. While Scotson, miles ahead, was soloing to victory, Fitter was caught by the peloton which has reduced to just 11 riders having shed all passengers.

With Scotson taking it easy on the fast descent back into Buninyong, his advantage over the chasers was shrinking but the win was never in doubt as he sat up and celebrated for the 200 meteres of the race.

"The second last time going up the climb I really dug deep up the climb when going over the top, regaining my breath," Scotson said. "The last time up the hill, going past all the people who help out at SASI, my mum and Tim Decker were absolutely screaming out for me and I really dug deep that last time up. The atmosphere at the top was great, it really spurred me on. When I got the time check coming down the descent at 1:10 minute, I didn't fully shut it down but I started ticking the gear over took it cautious round the corners thinking about what could go wrong. In the last two kilometres I just soaked it in."

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