FORMER professional cyclist Neil Van der Ploeg will look to become a more familiar face on the Riverina circuit after his victory in the Butch Menz Memorial.
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Van der Ploeg raced away with an impressive victory in the annual feature on Sunday, producing the fastest time of the race from his scratch mark to win the Memorial for the first time.
Van der Ploeg teamed up with young gun Zac Barnhill for most of Sunday's race before a miscommunication saw the Albury cyclist make a solo attack on the last rise and race away for victory.
Wagga's Luke Nixon grabbed second place, ahead of Will Silver, Sean Smith, Luke Riley and Stu Darling.
Van der Ploeg, 33, rode professionally around the world for the best part of the last decade before finishing up last year.
He hopes to race on the Riverina circuit more often after Sunday's success.
"It was good fun, I do like country racing," Van der Ploeg said.
"I'm not racing internationally any more. I've stepped back and started life like most people are familiar with. I'm still finding time for some rides.
"I like the Riverina circuit. It's not too serious but still very competitive so I'm keen to do more as they come up."
Van der Ploeg, a stage winner on the Tour de China in 2015, explained that he did not enter the Butch Menz Memorial with too much confidence.
"Not at all. I've only been doing a little bit of riding, a few training rides a week, more social stuff and not the volumes I'm used to," he said.
"I certainly wasn't confident. The last time I was in Wagga for a race earlier in the year, I'd done a similar amount of training and I didn't fair that well. I fared terribly actually.
"So I was more expecting something like that again but as it turned out, I had a really good day and had really good legs."
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