A trio of Wagga riders have made the most of their home ground advantage by achieving some fantastic results at the AusCycling Marathon Championships held at Pomingalarna Park over the weekend. Twins, Angus and Hunter Behnke finished first and second in the Under 15's Men's XCM Championship held over 25km, with Angus grabbing bragging rights by a mere 12 seconds. "It was an excellent result," Hunter said. "It was pretty tough but we held it together and got the job done." There was a fair bit of rain in the lead-up to the event, however both riders felt that the track was better than they were anticipating. "It was better than I thought," Hunter said. "It had a lot of rain and there was a bit over the back that was quite wet, but the track was in really good condition for the race." MORE SPORT NEWS: The duo rode as a pack alongside fellow Wagga rider Sydney Wang before trouble struck Sydney which left the brothers to duel it out. "There was three of us as we had Sidney Wang riding with us," Angus said. "But unfortunately he got a flat tire, so it left me and Hunter and we just rode together at a good pace to keep us in front for the whole race. "Then when it got the to hill, Hunter dropped back a bit and I rode down and took the win." The Mater Dei Catholic College students spent roughly around nine hours a week on a bike of some variety and have wishes of one day representing Australia professionally. Meanwhile, Tyler Beruldsen finished third in the Expert Men XCM Championship, with the 75km race going for over four hours. "I'm really happy about getting third," Beruldsen said. "It's my first national medal and only my second national event, so I'm pretty stoked. "It means a lot." Beruldsen admitted that he is not usually a marathon rider, however his experience helped him adjust to the longer distance. "I'm not really a marathon rider," he said. "I usually ride in shorter sharper events, but I've been racing since I was four or five, so I've been racing for nearly 20 years now. "I'm definitely not as fit as I should have been, but I'm still proud of how I did." Although Beruldsen's final time was a hint over four hours and eight minutes, he admitted a hill within the first two kilometres separated the elite from the rest of the pack. "The first hill within the first 1.5km sorted out who were the elite boys," he said. "After that you just found yourself in a little group and riding in bunches of five or six. "But then halfway through the race, you found you were by yourself or with one other person. "From there I just kept turning the legs over up and down the hills." Beruldsen is also gearing up for the Crocodile Trophy which is being held at the start of November and is known as the hardest mountain bike race in the world. Across seven days from Cairns to Port Douglas, competitors will complete over 1000km while also rising over 10,000km in elevation across the ride. The event has been postponed over the last couple of years with Beruldsen keen to finally get to compete in the event. "It's been two years in the making as I was meant to do it in 2020," he said. "I'm pretty keen to do this event." Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: