tsmoha wrote:
but - despite me taking a break from this stuff - Avanti is still dominating the thing

clamel wrote:
Lets hope for some nice races ahead. Any new races that could pop into the schedule ?

Date	Event	Pre	Winner
7.1.	Australia Timetrial NC	o	Hepburn
9.1.	Australia Criterium NC	o	Tobin
11.1.	Australia Road NC	o	Gerrans
10.1.	New Zealand Timetrial NC	o	Christie
12.1.	New Zealand Road NC	o	Bauer
28.1.	Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road	o	Anderson
29.1.	New Zealand Cycle Classic	o	Dyball
5.2.	Herald Sun Tour	o	Gerrans
12.3.	Oceania Championships ITT	o	C Meyer
14.3.	Oceania Championships RR	o	C Meyer
21.3.	Le Race	o	Williamson
21.4.	Mersey Valley Tour	o	T Meyer
2.5.	Tour de Perth	o	Cooper
9.5.	Tour of Toowoomba	o	N vd Ploeg
24.5.	Adelaide Tour	o	Anderson
20.6.	North West Tour	o	Haig
31.7.	Tour of Gippsland	o	Freienstein
10.8.	Tour of Geelong	o	Jones
18.8.	Tour of the Great South Coast	o	x
3.9.	Tour of the Murray River	o	x
20.9.	National Capital Tour	o	x
29.9.	Tour of Tasmania	o	x
12.10.	Melbourne to Warrnambool	o	x
20.10.	Launceston to New Norfolk	o	x
26.10.	Grafton to Inverell	o	x
3.11.	Tour of Southland	o	x
tba	Elite Series NZL
	Round 1	x	x
	Round 2	x	x
	Round 3	x	x
	Round 4	x	x
	Round 5	x	x
	Round 6.1	x	x
	Round 6.2	x	x
tba	Victorian Road Series
	Mt Baw Baw Classic	x	x
	Sam Miranda Road Race	x	x
	Stratford to Dargo	x	x
	Tour of Bright	x	x

indicates NRS-events
indicates UCI events
indicates New Zealand events
indicates other Australian/Oceanian events
o indicates "link available"
x indicates "not"

Tour of the Great South Coast Stages 6-7-8-9

History repeats, as team Jayco VIS once again managed to fool the top-favorites and win the Great South Coast after Thomas Hamilton took out last year's edition: a huge fail by the peloton in the Koroit Criterium (7th stage) allowed Oscar Stevenson (Jayco) to gain three crucial minutes on the GC-contenders.

An entertaining final day around Camperdown would also lift NRS-contender Timothy Roe (Budget) and Patrick Bevin (search2) onto the podium, with former race-leaders Brenton Jones and Neil Van der Ploeg (Avanti) completing the Top-5.

Jones, who led the race until this seventh stage, couldn't add another stage-win, but sprinted to two more podiums. Raphael Freienstein (Charter) took out the sixth stage thanks to an outstanding finishing kick, while Avanti kept collecting podium-placements here. Following on Stevenson's decisive victory in Koroit, Patrick Bevin took line honours in a windy and challenging stage to Petersborough - proving that he's a versitile stage racer.

An action-packed road race around Camperdown would bring stage-winner Timmy Roe an important GC-result: attacking the bunch 21km before finish, Roe went for an aggressive race. Mark O'Brien tried to follow, but couldn't hang on. Patrick Bevin then tried to catch up, launching a strong move on the final climb near Camperdown. He came close, but Roe took out the stage. Both gained about a minute on the bunch, where Stevenson did enough to secure his yellow ahead of Roe and Bevin!

Freienstein winning stage six ahead of Avanti's strongest duo here..

Stevenson surprisingly allowed to win the Koroit Crit by quite a margin..

..with the bunch-sprint won by Jones, who still lost yellow that day!

Bevin proving his strength and winning the challenging stage to Petersborough!

Roe attacking 20km before finish on final day - a crucial move!

O'Brien fighting to bridge across Roe, but empty-handed..

Bevin going past O'Brien/Kent-Spark on the final climb 5km to the line..

..but finishing as clear second behind a strong pacing Timmy Roe!

O'Brien couldn't hold off the bunch to miss out on a crucial gap..

Stevenson celebrating the second consecutive GC-win for Jayco here!

Brenton Jones takes over the lead from Joe Cooper, grabbing a total of 18pts in the Great South Coast! A huge step towards his more and more promising chances to claim the title this year: with the panflat Tour of the Murray River as next race on the schedule, there's a huge chance for the sprinters to score more valuable points.

Timmy Roe and Neil Van der Ploeg scored pretty well, too. Roe with some very important points with probably no chance to score in the Murray River now. Bevin popping up in the Top-20, the guy will be a real force when riding a full season.

#INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Brenton Jones	Avanti Racing Team	56
2	Timothy Roe	Budget Forklifts	51
3	Alexander Edmondson	Euride Racing	46
4	Raphael Freienstein	Charter Mason	45
5	Joe Cooper	Avanti Racing Team	41
6	Neil Van der Ploeg	Avanti Racing Team	40
7	Mark O'Brien	Avanti Racing Team	39
8	Jack Haig	Avanti Racing Team	29
9	Jesse Kerrison	Budget Forklifts	27
	Daniel Barry	Budget Forklifts	27
11	Jonathan Cantwell	Drapac Cycling	24
12	Travis Meyer	Drapac Cycling	21
13	Jack Anderson	Drapac Cycling	17
14	Michael Vink	Budget Forklifts	15
	Oscar Stevenson	Jayco VIS - Apollo	15

#TEAM'S RANKINGS

Rk	Team	Points
1	Avanti Racing Team	163
2	Budget Forklifts	119
3	Charter Mason Giant Racing	74
4	Drapac Cycling	63
5	search2retain	54
6	Euride Racing	48
7	African Wildlife Safaris	42
8	Jayco VIS - Apollo	33
9	Data#3 Symantec RT	26
10	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	21
11	GPM Data#3	15
12	St George Skoda HP Team	12
13	SUVelo Racing	8
	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	8
15	Seight Test Team	6
16	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	5
	Suzuki Bontrager	5
18	Fiets Apparel Test Team	3
	Paradice Investment	3
20	Total Rush Hyster	2
21	Cellarbrations Racing Team	1

Tour of the Murray River

The Tour of the Murray River is a 6 day 7 stage road tour which starts in the North Western Victorian town of Mildura for a tough 125km road race, the tour then heads to Swan Hill for a criterium and road race. Stage 3 through to Stage 6 are all road races varying in distance. Stage 7 sees the tour finish off in Yarrawonga with a criterium overlooking the scenic Lake Mulwala.

It's a tour for the sprinters with all of the stages being pan-flat. Anyway, crosswinds and the fast crits may lead to some unexpected action, so the favorites definitely have to watch out every day.


+ 2 flat crits




Scott Law (GPM) took out last year's edition ahead of Anthony Giacoppo (Huon) - both scoring the same amount of bonifications! A thrilling race with previous race-winner Luke Davison (Drapac) also in the mix again.. both Law and Giacoppo will ride for Avanti this year, though expected to support the NRS-leader Brenton Jones this time!

[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)
After claiming the provisional lead in the NRS-rankings, Jones looks set to grow this lead in this last flat stage-race. He's been impressive most lately and will have an outstanding support with Law/Giacoppo!

[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)
Struggled to do anything too special in the Great South Coast, but still scored 5pts eventually. With ten points disadvantage on Jones, he definitely needs to limit the losses here though..

[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)
Same goes for Freienstein, who's just one point off Edmondson in the rankings. The premium sprinters do have a nice chance to attack the NRS-title this year and the German is in the mix!

[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)
Opposing to Kerrison, who ain't exactly disappointing, but still lacking those huge results like Jones or Freienstein had this season. Anyway, this all-flat stages here should suit him quite well.

[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)
And of course there's good ol' Cantwell, as Drapac is finally back in action after skipping the Great South Coast. Definitely a similar strong lineup as Avanti or Budget, so watch out for this guy!

Tour of the Murray River Stages 1-2-3-4

Drapac's Jonathan Cantwell kicked off the first day with a bang, taking out two stages to prove that his team is still a force in Australia despite missing several races this year. Leading the GC after four of seven stages, it's still an open race with two of the most serious NRS-contenders collecting stage-wins, too: Brenton Jones (Avanti) and Alex Edmondson (Euride).

A narrow victory in the opening stage was followed by a quite dominating showing for Jon Cantwell.. things didn't look too good for Avanti and Budget Forklifts, as their leaders Jones and Kerrison were nowhere to be seen in that second bunch sprint.

That would change on the third and most challenging stage so far: heavy crosswinds around 60kmh would see the peloton going into pieces, with teams like Drapac and Avanti pushing it hard. Cantwell looked in trouble, but eventually there were no major gaps at the finish. Alex Edmondson sprinted to an impressive victory ahead of Jones, showing that both will be a real threat for the NRS-crown this year.

Also Brenton Jones would then get his first stage-win in the Kerang to Coruna Road Race, where Cantwell bounced back from his trouble the day before and picked up four bonus seconds to defend his narrow lead in the provisional GC. With three stages - and the ever possible crosswinds - to come, things are wide open from here on!

Cantwell taking the first stage ahead of Grenda and Jones..

..celebrating a nice comeback for Drapac after skipping the previous race!

Euride's Gill kicking off the bunch sprint in the Swan Hill Crit..

..where Cantwell went for dominating win ahead of Edmondson/Gill!

Crosswinds in stage three: strong man Goesinnen (Drapac) pulling the bunch..

Avanti taking over with the peloton more and more going into pieces..

GC-leader Cantwell in troubles and fears to be gapped in this tough finish!

While Edmondson finished off a great leadout from Gill in style!

Jones taking his first stage-win in Cohuna, jumping onto 2nd in the GC..

..which is led by veteran Cantwell, who has three stages to "survive" now!