Stage two may already be decisive for the GC, as it features a tough finish on Cradle Mountain. Budget's Mark O'Brien is pressurised to gain his lost 50 seconds back from Jack Haig (currently sitting comfortable on GC's 2nd behind teammate Donnelly).
Five riders broke clear early, facing the first short climb just as they left yesterday's TT-section:
Mitchell Flynn (Suzuki)
James Rendall (African Wildlife)
Craig Symonds (Bianchi)
followed by
Lachlan Ambrose (Veneziano)
Brad Hannaford (SUVelo)
The break was never allowed to a bigger lead than 1'30" though. Huon-Genesys looked in total control so far.
With 54km to go, nothing had changed, as the escapees still held on to their lead.
10km later, a second - more serious - attempt:
Darren Lapthorne (Drapac)
Bradley Hall (Satalyst)
Rowan Dever (Target)
attacked the bunch and quickly caught up to the leading group (where Suzuki's Flynn got dropped)!
Lapthorne (3rd at Mt Baw Baw Classic) definitely put some pressure on Genesys, even though all of the mid-stage attackers are at least 1 minute down in GC.
Lapthorne joining the early breakaway, where the riders kept attacking for KoM-points.
Hannaford (SUVelo) and Ambrose (Veneziano) appeared to be the strongest, with Ambrose taking the KoM-lead (32 points) ahead of Hannaford (24).
Those attacks led to the breakaway fading though, as they couldn't work well together.
Just a few moments later, four riders tried their luck with another attempt (36km to go):
Darren Lapthorne (yet again)
Nathan Elliott (Target)
Ben Carman (Downer EDI)
Josh Taylor (GPM Data#3)
So definitely a dangerous group with Lapthorne and Elliott in particular. The riders, who lost a minute in the ITT, but who can climb rather well.
But again the break suffers as Huon-Genesys pulled them back with 12km remaining. A strong team it is.
And it's a perfect setup for the favorites to set the agenda late in the race! Just as they hit the final climb (5km), they start to attack:
Rhys Gillett (African)
Nathan Elliott (Genesys)
Mark O'Brien (Budget)!
So Genesys wouldn't try to support race-leader Donnelly here, who ain't the best climber anyway.
The three attackers were joined by Lachlan Norris (Jayco) and with 3km to go, they established a 20"-gap on the chasing group:
E1 (4)/ Norris, O'Brien, Earle, Gillett
E2 (5)/ Sulzberger, Semple, Haig, Neil Van der Ploeg, Marc Williams (Budget) at 0.20
E3 (1)/ Carpenter at 1.06
O'Brien and Elliott pacing hard on the climb, growing the gap to 45" with 2.5km remaining.
But at least Adam Semple (Satalyst) ain't done, he managed to catch up to the leading four with 2km to go.
1.2km remaining and yet another acceleration by Earle/O'Brien, who drop the others now!
E1 (2)/ Earle, O'Brien
E2 (2)/ Semple, Norris at 0.12
E3 (5)/ Gillett, Van der Ploeg, Williams, Sulzberger, Haig at 0.22
E4 (1)/ Carpenter at 1.43
The chasing group wouldn't stand a chance to fight back, while you may notice that Earle got a small advantage over O'Brien..
..and Nathan Earle wins the queen-stage! The Baw Baw-winner continues to deliver in the mountains and as his teammate Donnelly lost minutes today, Earle is the new race-leader.
Mark O'Brien 2nd with the same time. A strong performance, but he couldn't gain time on Earle.
Lachlan Norris 3rd, 21" behind. And Adam Semple with 30" in arrears as 4th.
GC's 2nd Jack Haig finished within the first chasing group of favorites, losing 49", but keeping a podium-spot in GC.
Looking forward to your support, it has always been a pleasure!
