THEY will competing against the best in the state, but Lithgow’s Hayley Wolfenden is confident she and her fellow Bathurst BMX Club riders can challenge for podiums at the New South Wales titles.
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Wolfenden will join eight other riders from the club in heading to the Macarthur track at the end of the month to vie for a state plate.
She will ride in the 17-24 years women’s category and will be joined by brothers Wyatt (eight boys) and Jett Robertson (11 boys); father and son Bradley (10 boys) and Phil Martin (40-44 men’s cruiser); Greg (masterclass), Liam (16 boys) and Chelsie Westman (13 girls); plus Joel Goulding (17-24 men’s).
Wolfenden will have high hopes for the upcoming competition after scoring a place on the podium at the Oceania Championships earlier this year.
“I’m expecting Bathurst to do reasonably well, I’m expecting a few state plates to come home with our riders, it’s just a matter of how many,” she said.
“You’ve got to go in with some sort of confidence – it’s that saying that those who say they can and those who say they can’t are both almost always right.
“You look at our open meet results and there are definitely promising riders in there that have come away with good results.
“Obviously for the state titles it is going to be a bit more of a step up than a normal open meet, but that gives you an indicator.
“The groups you ride against are very similar, not much changes in the riders, it just depends on how much effort you put in compared to open meets.”
The Bathurst riders will face three motos then, depending on how they place in those motos, it will be on to the finals.
For those riding in larger classes, it could involve quarter-finals as well as semi-finals and the decider. They will do all of that on the same day.
“You’ve really got to be on your game, especially if you are in one of the bigger groups,” Wolfenden said.
“It’s a quick track and it’s long, so if you don’t have the fitness there it’s going to cost you big time. Different parts of the track are suited to different ability levels, so it will definitely sort out the riders still.”
While Goulding has previously broken his frame at the Macarthur track, that he, Liam Westman and Wolfenden recently tested themselves against stiff superclass competition should provide confidence.
“We all had a go and no-one looked out of the picture in the superclass. You’ve just got to see what happens on the day, a couple of us will have more consistent superclass riders riding in our age class as well and that will bring up the game a little bit,” Wolfenden said.
The titles run from September 30 to October 1.
