North West & Tour of Gippsland Highlights

Pollock (Charter), Smith (search2) and Rendall (African) on a breakaway..

Cupitt (Budget) and Davis (Avanti) attacking on North West's queen stage..

..where Haig (Avanti) climbs the steepest slopes to his solo-win!

Chasing group with O'Brien/Cooper (Avanti) going for 3rd place on that day..

Budget and Charter Mason leading the bunch in North West's final stage..

Barry (Budget) launching his winning move on the same day!

A breakaway with Cameron (Cellarbrations) in Gippsland..

The peloton preparing for yet another bunch sprint on the same day..

Freienstein (Charter) and Edmondson (Euride) dominated in Gippsland..

Freienstein on his way to line honours in Traralgon's tricky criterium!

Finally some sign of weakness from Avanti, right?

the_hoyle wrote:
When will Drapac's next race be?

Tour of Geelong Preview

Second consecutive stage races made for the sprinters and therefore another great chance for the fast men to target the provisional lead in the NRS rankings. Freienstein (Charter) just proved, that those sprinters can go for huge points hauls in a race like that! Opposing to Gippsland, the Geelong Tour looks even better for pure sprinters to shine.

This race in Victoria features five flat stages.. three crits (with some minor difficulties) and two road races - with the second stage being the most challenging - will give the sprinters the opportunity to score points.


+ 3 Crits




Thanks to a stage-win in the opening day and some consistent bunch sprint to score further bonus seconds, Luke Davison took out the Geelong Tour 2014 (which made it back to the NRS schedule for the first time since 2011). Other top-tier sprinters struggled to stay in the mix for the GC, where roleurs like Wohler and Donnelly eventually completed the podium in an interesting race.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Jones_B_zps4bfcbeed.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Brenton Jones (Avanti Racing)
Jones needs to bounce back from a disastrous Gippsland-race, where he scored just two points (on first day) and then struggled to compete with Freienstein. Also lost a minute due to a split there.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Edmondson_zpsaf4c88fd.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Alex Edmondson (Euride Racing)
Two stage-wins and 2nd overall in Gippsland, Edmondson finally had something like a breakthrough this year. Currently sitting on 7th in the NRS rankings, he should be a favorite here, too.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Donohoe_zps97c33bfd.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Alistair Donohoe (search2)
Expected to lead his team in the sprints after Kent-Spark struggled to do anything special in Gippsland most recently. Donohoe definitely has the skills to be amongst the fastest guys here.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Freinstein_zpsa0ad5bbe.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Raphael Freienstein (Charter Mason)
Probably the man to beat here: coming off a dominating win in Gippsland (with four stage-wins), the German made a huge jump onto a tied 3rd in the NRS rankings and may attack Cooper now!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Kerrison_zps4f6c8b04.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jesse Kerrison (Budget Forklifts)
Solid performance in Gippsland, but still missing a win this year. Kerrison finished behind teammate Daniel Barry, who could be well in the mix here again. Anyway, a threat he is for sure!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_YatesTheo_zpsc312f42e.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Theodore Yates (Satalyst)
Coming off one very close 2nd place on fourth stage in Gippsland, where he showed his potential to be one of the better sprinters in the NRS this season. The more flat profiles should suit him.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Cantwell_zps650c8cce.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jonathan Cantwell (Drapac)
Drapac is back in action and will be a true force, whenever they pop up: Cantwell should be their main sprinter here, but it's a team with several options for every kind of race. And they have to defend a title here.

the_hoyle wrote:
I might be being blind, but I don't see Drapac on the startlist...

Tour of Geelong Recap

Brenton Jones (Avanti) took out the Tour of Geelong to bounce back from his disastrous Tour of Gippsland in style. The premium sprinter finished the race ahead of Jonathan Cantwell (Drapac) and Alex Edmondson (Euride), as those three also shared the five stage-wins.

The tour kicked off with a criterium through North Shore, which would already be a good indicator of what to expect for all five days here: bunch sprints! Jon Cantwell took the line honours ahead of Jones and Edmondson - this trio would be the most consistent sprinters til the end.

While Jones had to settle for three consescutive 2nd places on the first three stages, Edmondson and again Cantwell scored wins on the next two days. The leader-shirt would go back to Cantwell at this point, while Gippsland's dominator Freienstein wasn't much of a factor in Geelong!

And so it was Brent Jones, who delivered big time here: sprinting for his two stage-wins on the last two days, Avanti's captain secured himself his first GC-win in his career. Cantwell missed bonus seconds on the final criterium through Geelong, but held on to the runner-up spot ahead of Edmondson, who scored bonifications in every stage (like Jones).. Jesse Kerrison (Budget) had to settle for 5th in GC, just behind Ben Grenda (Pure Tasmania), while Budget did pretty well with three more riders inside the Top-10.

Cantwell taking line honours on the opening criterium..

Avanti, Drapac and Euride with it's trains on second day..

..where Edmondson took out his only stage-win here!

Jones and Cantwell head-to-head in the Portarlington criterium..

..where Jones had to settle for another runner-up behind Cantwell!

Jones, Grenda and Freienstein kicking off their sprint on fourth day..

..for a dominating victory by Jones, beating Grenda!

Grenda with an early kick in final day's bunch sprint..

..where Jones made it a double to secure his GC-win!

His first GC-victory and a huge comeback after Gippsland's disaster!

Joe Cooper leads the individual's rankings prior to the longest stage race (Great South Coast) on the schedule, now with the same points as Alex Edmondson, who had two extraordinary races most recently! Timmy Roe and Brenton Jones share a tied third with just 3pts down, with O'Brien and also Freienstein still in a great position, too.

Jones (24pts in Geelong), Freienstein (27pts in Gippsland) and Edmondson (31pts in those two events) were the big winners of the last two sprinters' races and with the even more flat Tour of Murray River still to come, it's clear, that sprinters may stand a chance to fight for the overall this year. Cooper, O'Brien and former NRS-leader Roe of course are the most promising stage racers at this point.

As for the team's rankings, not too much has changed since our last update: Avanti keeps going strong towards repeating it's title from last season. The Tasmanian based squad scored 34pts in the last two events, while Budget (33pts) couldn't make up some ground. Still a strong showing by the team.

#INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Joe Cooper	Avanti Racing Team	41
	Alexander Edmondson	Euride Racing	41
3	Timothy Roe	Budget Forklifts	38
	Brenton Jones	Avanti Racing Team	38
5	Mark O'Brien	Avanti Racing Team	37
	Raphael Freienstein	Charter Mason	37
7	Jack Haig	Avanti Racing Team	29
8	Neil Van der Ploeg	Avanti Racing Team	28
9	Daniel Barry	Budget Forklifts	27
10	Jonathan Cantwell	Drapac Cycling	24
11	Jesse Kerrison	Budget Forklifts	21
	Travis Meyer	Drapac Cycling	21
13	Jack Anderson	Drapac Cycling	17
14	Stuart Smith	search2retain	14
15	Michael Vink	Budget Forklifts	12
	Will Clarke	Drapac Cycling	12

#TEAM'S RANKINGS

Rk	Team	Points
1	Avanti Racing Team	133
2	Budget Forklifts	100
3	Charter Mason Giant Racing	63
	Drapac Cycling	63
5	African Wildlife Safaris	42
6	search2retain	41
7	Euride Racing	39
8	Data#3 Symantec RT	22
9	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	21
10	Jayco VIS - Apollo	18
11	GPM Data#3	12
	St George Skoda HP Team	12
13	SUVelo Racing	8
14	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	7
15	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	5
	Suzuki Bontrager	5
17	Seight Test Team	3
	Paradice Investment	3
19	Cellarbrations Racing Team	1
	Fiets Apparel Test Team	1