THIS SUNDAY, Monday and Tuesday fans of cycling will gather in Bass Coast for three legs of the 2022 Tour of Gippsland, featuring some of Australia’s top riders.
It’s a welcome return of elite cycling to a shire with a proud cycling history beginning as early as 1910, when the Powlett Express reported “Movement is afoot to establish a Wonthaggi Cycling Club.”
Soon afterwards, weekly handicap races took place on Saturday afternoons starting from the Union Theatre. In 1926, the July 7 Melbourne Sporting Globe reported that Bruce Small had arranged the “Malvern Star”, an annual open race from Wonthaggi to Melbourne, a distance of 86 miles.
Mr Small had intended to stage his race along the Dandenong Road from Oakleigh through Gippsland, but “strong inducements were held out to him to make Wonthaggi the starting point, as cycling is booming in the mining district.”