Melbourne to Ballarat cycling classic success

TWELVE months ago Shannon Johnson was one of Australia’s fastest men on two wheels.Johnson was to the fore of the Australian Superbike Championship, having carved out a decade-long career in motor sport.The 31-year-old is still making a mark on two wheels, but not at the same hectic pace.He has switched to pedal power and is beginning to make an impact in road cycling.Johnson landed his biggest road cycling win so far in the 101st Melbourne to Ballarat Classic on Saturday.He out-sprinted Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club duo Scott Townsend and Jeremy Doolan to take overall honours in two hours, 21 minutes, 52 seconds. He was also the first masters rider home in the 93-kilometre event.Scratchmarker Steele Von Hoff had the fastest time of 2:08.44.The scratchmarkers finished about four minutes behind Johnson, but never looked like bridging the gap.Johnson, who rode off 18 minutes, said he was introduced to cycling as part of cross-training in his motorcycle career.The 2002 Australian superbike champion said it seemed a natural move to make after last year deciding to give away motorsport, taking up race cycling in January.Johnson said there was no way he could have walked away from competitive sport.“I couldn’t have gone cold turkey.“I needed something to satisfy the competitive juices.”Johnson has only contested a handful of open feature events, but is determined to go as far as he can in the sport.He already has his sights on riding in the Australian masters road championships in Ballarat in October.Johnson said he began thinking about the possibility of winning on Saturday about 10km from the finish.“I was feeling good.”Although he was unsure exactly how the course finished, Johnson said his cornering experience on motorbikes had been important as he rode off the wheel of Townsend to get the win.