Alastair MacKellar has made his intentions clear this season with impressive back to back victories at the Australian National Championships with the 20-year-old Queenslander taking home the U23 road race and time trial titles.
After his solo road race win on Sunday, MacKellar was back in action today to take on the 28.6-kilometer course. The Israel – Premier Tech rider smashed the time trial on his Factor HANZŌ to cross the line with a 1:26 margin to secure his second green and gold jersey.
“My goal here was more the time trial coming into this National Championships. It’s exactly what I was targeting for the time trial so to be able to execute it on the day was perfect, it’s what I was aiming for. I honestly didn’t come here with the intention of winning both races so to pull it off is pretty surreal. I didn’t expect it so to be able to pull that off is pretty special to me,” said MacKellar.
MacKellar’s Aussie double gives him confidence as he gets set to return to Europe tomorrow and join Israel – Premier Tech’s camp in Spain.
“It gives me a lot of confidence coming into the season, more so the beginning of the season as the form is now here. So these early races will be a bigger target now. At the same time my other objective is to not overdo it and take some time to rest because it’s a long season and I still want to be good come the middle and end of the year.”
With the green and gold jerseys firmly on his shoulders for the 2023 season, MacKellar has his sights set on some key objectives this year.
“Some big objectives this year are the U23 races like Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which is a big goal, and hopefully, the U23 Giro again. To be able to take both Australian jerseys into these races is pretty special.”
