Durbridge Claims Third Place in Tour of Tas

WAIS cyclist Luke Durbridge has continued his excellent 2009 form by adding a third place finish in the Tour of Tasmania alongside his Junior World Championship crowns.

Riding for Team AIS-Jayco, Durbridge was just 56 seconds adrift of eventual winner Bernard Sulzberger of Team Fly V Australia and Peter McDonald of Team Drapac Porsche.

Tasmanian native Sulzberger was delighted to claim the overall victory and paid respect to his teammates for making it possible.

“To win my home state tour means a lot to me,” Sulzberger said. “My teammates have worked wonderfully well and while my name might go on the trophy, it’s as much theirs’ as it is mine.”

For Durbridge it is another successful tour in what has been a prominent year for the 18 year-old Bassendean resident. He won a medal at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival earlier in the year, before capturing to Junior World Championship titles in Russia recently in the road time trial and track madison. He was also a member of the Australian team that won silver in Russia.

Durbridge is now scheduled to spend two weeks at the AIS track cycling camp in Adelaide where he will look to impress and put his name forward for the up coming UCI World Cup leg in Melbourne in November.