An Post-Sean Kelly’s new Australian sprint signing, Scott Law has said he “can’t describe” how happy he is to have won the Australian U23 criterium title and believes it should set him up for a productive year in Belgium.
“This has been one of my main objectives for the year; to get on the podium for the criterium and to perform well in the championship road race tomorrow (Saturday). The win still hasn’t set in; I can’t believe that I have the green and gold on my shoulders this year.”
The 20-year-old, who signed for Sean Kelly’s outfit in recent weeks, won the title from a bunch sprint in Ballarat near Melbourne yesterday morning, Thursday, while riding for a New South Wales selection.
He now believes his imminent move to Europe to ride for An Post-Sean Kelly will be a step up. He says he wants to learn from his more experienced team mates and to help them win races, but also hopes to take his own chances when they came.
Advertisement
“I’m really looking forward to this year with An Post-Sean Kelly,” he told stickybottle from Australia.
“This will be my first year over in Europe on the road so I’m very excited about it. I’ve been to Belgium before on the track for the U23 Ghent Six-Day so this year will be a learning experience for me; learning from the more experience riders.”
“I think I’ll be sticking close to Niko Eeckhout; to learn from him and I think helping him out with the sprints or out on the road. I hope I can still have a chance to give it a go in some of the sprint finishes but I’m more than happy to lay it on the line for the other guys to help them get up for a win.”
Law still has a number of track and road commitments in the next couple of months in Australia and so will start his European campaign a little later than his new team mates.
“I still have a few big track races in Australia like the national titles in Adelaide (in three weeks), where I’ll be defending my scratch race title, and the Bendigo Madison weekend in early March, where I’ll be pairing with my brother Jackson.”
“My major focus has been the track the past couple of years, so I’ve decided to make the transfer to the road and to concentrate more on my road sprinting.”
Related News
Law, from Balgownie, New South Wales, is a former stage winner in the Tour of Geelong and has represented Australia from the age of seventeen.
He has won no fewer than 20 track, TT and road race Australian and Oceanic titles since his mid teens, though his crit win yesterday is his first major road title.
He said the 33km race on the tight 1.1km course was very fast.
A late solo effort by his training partner Aaron Donnelly (Australian Institute of Sports) almost outwitted the rest of the field.
On the last lap Law charged into the final corner to give himself the best position possible for the finishing gallop, as Donnelly dangled out front.
“I jumped about 100m before the corner to get up to Aaron, and used him to run off the wheel with about 200m to go. I just put my head down and let my legs to the talking.”
“I didn’t know how much of a gap I had, so I didn’t want to celebrate too early. I can’t describe the feeling of crossing that line; putting in all the time and effort on the bike, leaving it all out on the road on the good days and the bad, and to cross that line with a massive win like this is indescribable.”
[wpbrad id="6"]
Topics
