The 2012 Queensland State Criterium Championships were held at the fantastic Luke Harrop Memorial criterium circuit at Runaway Bay. State titles are always a hard fought race, and with the wind sweeping across the open circuit, this race was always going to be selective.
As the race started, the first few laps were sedate, as everyone eyed each other off, however this was soon interrupted by the first flurry of attacks. For several laps, attacks and counter attacks were making the race hard, until there was a brief lull. At this point Matt attacked hard in the cross wind section of the course and drove it hard in the gutter hoping to cause a split in the bunch. Matt soon found himself alone off the front and continued to drive it hard.
After half a lap by himself, Matt was soon joined by Chris Williams, where the two quickly started working together to open the gap between the bunch. For more than 20 minutes, the two worked hard to establish the gap, but the bunch didn't give up and started to chase.
As the two up front pushed hard, the bunch behind was breaking up as two riders worked hard to get across to the front. Matt and Chris knew riders were trying to come across, which motivated them to work harder and eventually they broke the chasing pair.
With 10 minutes to go, it was starting to become obvious the two off the front would stay away, however they continued to work all the way to the finish to make sure of it.
With 3 laps to go, it was only then that the pace slackened, however Matt knew Chris wouldn't let the pace drop. In the final lap, Chris attacked hard and broke away. After starting the winning move and spending more than 50 minutes in the break, Matt didn't have enough to respond to the attack and had to settle for the silver medal.
