Tour veteran Luke Durbridge aims for fifth title in Perth with Kings Park to be centrepiece

Ten-time Tour de France finisher Luke Durbridge will compete in the Australian road cycling championships in Perth next January, the first time the prestigious event has been held outside Victoria in 17 years. West Australian Durbridge aims to start in the time-trial, which he has won four times, as well as the criterium and road race. And event organiser AusCycling is hopeful another trio of WA cycling guns, newly crowned Olympic team pursuit champion Sam Welsford, and grand tour starters Jai Hindley and Ben O’Connor, will also be at the start line. The WA Government has secured the road nationals for the next three years on the back of Australia’s best Olympic campaign in cycling since 2004, winning eight medals across four disciplines at the Paris Games. Durbridge, 33, who was raised in Perth, said it was a genuine coup to lure the nationals away from Ballarat. “It’s been in Victoria since I was a junior and while I’ve been a professional, so to snare it away, it’s quite a big deal so I want to show my support,” Durbridge said from his base in Girona, Spain. Kings Park and the CBD will be the centrepiece of the road race, while the time trial will be held around Bold Park within sight of City Beach and the criterium in Northbridge. West Australian riders have a rich history at the nationals, winning six of the past 14 time-trials and five of 15 road races. Durbridge was one of six Australians who rode in this year’s Tour de France, alongside Michael Matthews and Chris Harper in the Jayco Jayco-AlUla team, Jai HIndley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) and Jarrad Drizners (Lotto–Dstny). Dutch rider Dylan Groenewegen picked up a stage win for Jayco–AlUla on the sixth day of this year’s Tour. “That’s always the big goal to win a stage,” Durbridge said. “There’s only 21 chances and it’s not every year it happens - it had been two years since our last stage win. It was my job to help facilitate that. I finished my 10th Tour, which was pretty cool.” But just two days after his return, he broke his jaw on a training run just around the corner from his apartment in Girona. “I rode around the corner and a car illegally turned and I slammed in the side. It could have been worse. It’s a fractured cheek. I had a good run on the tour, didn’t crash, then two days after getting home I get wiped out by a car,” he said. Durbridge has also won a national road race (2013) and finished runner-up in the time trial six times, including the last three. He also has two world championship gold medals. He is hoping local knowledge will help him to a fifth title. “Bold Park is my off-season training time-trial circuit, so they have done me a solid by making it exactly where I train. I will be back home getting prepared for that and hopefully I can line up a fifth title,” he said. “It’s going to be mega. If you think about the city circuit for the road race, riding along Riverside Drive, all the helicopter shots and the TV coverage of our beautiful city, nice time of year as well in summer. “Some challenging parts of the course as well, up Malcolm Street. It’s incorporating all the best parts of Perth. We are so lucky to have such a lovely riding park in the city, not many cities have that. The finish right up Fraser Avenue will be really cool.” The nationals will open with the time trial (January 8–9) on a 9.8km circuit around Bold Park. The elite men will contest four laps (39.2km) and the elite women three laps (29.4km). The streets of Northbridge will host the criterium on January 10, a 1.2km course with six corners per lap. The road race (January 11–12) will be held on a 13.6-kilometre circuit that twists through Kings Park, the green heart of Perth, along the Swan River and into the CBD.