Pushing: Levi Hone leads the breakaway group during the under-19 road race at the Oceania Championships in Brisbane at the weekend. Photo: Hayden McAndrew
Photo by
Hayden McAndrew
Echuca cycling sensation Levi Hone has pulled off yet another remarkable ride on the big stage, winning a silver medal in the under-19 road race at the 2023 Oceania Cycling Championships on Saturday.
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Hone was active from the start in the 83km road race, as he formed part of the three-man breakaway with Will Heath (Balmoral Cycling Club) and Josiah Grierson (Penrith Cycling Club) on the first lap.
"I rode the course the day before, and it wasn't like a perfect course for myself,” Hone said of the 21km circuit around Brisbane.
“I decided, because there wasn't really many flat spots, you know, it's kind of up and down the whole time, I decided it was a good course for a breakaway.
“Then about 2km in, a bloke rolled off up the road from the bunch, so I thought I'd jump on and see what happens, and then we got a group of three of us and we had about 30 seconds after a few k's, and we all just committed and, yeah, we brought the gap out pretty far.”
The trio pushed hard, stretching its lead over the chasing peloton to four minutes after the first lap, but was never fully comfortable with a strong field behind hunting it down.
"Kind of never, I don't think,” Hone said when asked if the trio thought about the podium at all after going clear.
“At the end of the first lap we had four minutes (to the chasing pack), and then at the end of the second lap it was down to one minute and 50 seconds, so we thought we might have been in a bit of trouble for the last lap.”
Despite the growing threat from the bunch behind, the leading three continued to work well together, aiming to maintain the gap for as long as possible.
“We upped the tempo a little bit, well as much as we could manage,” Hone said.
“Maybe halfway through the last lap it (the gap) was a minute 17 and had been holding for a few k's, so we started to think we had a shot.
“But all the big guns behind us would have been firing, so it wouldn't have been until the last maybe one or two kilometres that we knew that we had it.”
Up the final climb, Heath jumped away, pulling out to a 30-second lead over Hone and Grierson to claim the gold in a stunning solo move.
Hone outkicked a struggling Grierson as they made their final sprint to the line, securing the silver medal in a performance that will certainly put his name on the radar of professional teams.
Podium: Levi Hone (left) shares the podium with winner Will Heath (middle) and third-placed Josiah Grierson. Photo: Hayden McAndrew
Photo by
Hayden McAndrew
Although he had been crowned A-grade criterium champion at club level with Echuca Moama Cycling Club just a week earlier, Hone didn’t expect to come away with a medal at the Oceania Championships considering just how stacked the field was with junior talent.
“I was probably in the best form I've ever been in going into it,” he said.
“But with a start list with such depth, you just never know what's going to happen in the race. Anything could happen, so you just kind of do what you can and see what happens.”
A strong performance in the Oceania Championships is certainly indicative of elite talent — last year’s junior road race winner Oscar Chamberlain was given a contract by UCI World Tour team AG2R-Citroen to ride for its under-19 team in Europe this year, while junior time trial winner William Eaves represented Australia in the 2022 World Championships alongside Chamberlain, placing inside the top 20 in the time trial.
While racing in Europe is certainly something Hone would love to pursue, he knows the selection process is rigorous and remains focused on delivering good results in Australia in the meantime.
“Oh, I'd love to, but I'll have to see what opportunities we can get because there's not much out there, really,” he said.
“Australia are taking a few guys over to Europe later in winter, I think, but the odds of getting picked for that are pretty slim, so we'll just have to see how we go and keep racing here.”
Hone also put in a solid performance in the under-19 Oceania Championship time trial on Thursday, March 30, finishing in 17th place, two minutes and 55 seconds behind race winner Wil Holmes.
Sunday capped off a big weekend of racing for Hone, as he competed against the elite men in the 102km National Road Series Tour De Brisbane, turning in another unbelievable effort to finish in the second group across the line, just 10 seconds behind race winner Brady Gilmore.
