National Capital Tour (Preview #2)

Mark O'Brien (Budget)/ Best climber in the NRS, as shown impressively in the North West Tour, where he and teammate Cupitt crushed the opponents. Top-seed, who needs to score high.

Nathan Earle (Huon-Genesys)/ Better in TTs than O'Brien and also a decent climber. If he gains valuable seconds on his most dangerous opponents in the opening ITT, he can win this.

Matthew Clark (Charter Mason)/ Already showed his potential in the tough North West Tour and should be rated as one of the best climbers in the NRS. Therefore a good bet.

Michael Cupitt (Budget)/ Another great Budget-climber, who had some bad luck in the Great South Coast Tour, where he took the out the first hilly stage.

Lachlan Norris (Jayco)/ May lose time in the ITT, but he's one of the strongest climbers. With the mountain-stage likely being the decisive one, he finally needs to deliver after some tough weeks/months.

Jai Crawford (Huon-Genesys)/ Better climber than Earle or Haig, but he may have to work for his captains, who both fight for the NRS-title. Anyway, if he finishes the mountain at the front, he's of course in good position.

Darren Lapthorne (Drapac)/ Drapac desperately tried to keep contact to the top-teams Huon and Budget.. with Davison scoring high in the flat Murray River Tour, the curse may be broken. Will they finally climb as well as O'Brien and co?

Cal Britten (search2retain)/ Hard to say, wether search2 will go for NRS' 2nd Neil Van der Ploeg or try their luck with their better pure climbers.. if Van der Ploeg struggles in the mountains, Britten could be there.

Karl Evans (Budget)/ Tour of Gippsland-winner Evans may aim for another podium-spot, building a dangerous trio with O'Brien/Cupitt. Again the question: will he go on his own or only support O'Brien?

Neil Van der Ploeg (search2retain)/ The best allrounder in the NRS and also a real threat for the overall title this year.. if he survives the mountain-stage, he's definitely capable of finishing in Top-5/10, as he can score bonus seconds in the flat stages.

National Capital Tour (Stage 1, ITT, 17km)

The Capital Tour kicks off with a 17km ITT and it's about more than "just" a stage-win today: the GC-contenders can either win or lose crucial seconds or minutes here.


Neil Van der Ploeg (search2retain) is one of the mentioned contenders and he proves his allround skills once again, leading the provisional ranking with a decent time:

So he will gain around 20 seconds on other GC-contenders like Earle (Huon) or O'Brien (Budget)..

1st so far: 23'38"


Jack Haig (Huon) is also strong against the clock and he delivers as well, finishing close behind VdP:

2nd by now: + 1"

So will he be Huon's captain for tomorrow's tough mountain-stage?


Harry Carpenter (Euride) is the next stage-favorite, while not being a real threat for the overall honours here. Anyway, he sets a new BT:

1st: 23'35"


James Hepburn (GPM) is also known as a TT-specialist and he looked good at the first checkpoint.. but due to changing weather conditions, he struggles in the second half:

6th so far: + 13"


Mark Jamieson (Jayco/Apollo), who rode for Oz Cycling Project in the Continental Division last year, looks like the last possible stage-winner today.. and...

yes, new BT, beating Carpenter by a second!

Tomorrow's mountain-stage will be the crucial stage anyway, but of course we've seen some gaps between the GC-contenders today. Check the results to spot the most notable!

National Capital Tour (Stage 2, Mountain, 104km)

Second day here in Canberra and it's expected to be the crucial one: a tough mountain-stage is likely to create decisive gaps and split the peloton into pieces.

Race-leader Jamieson (Jayco) ain't known as the best climber and needs a really good day to stay in yellow..


The stage kicks off with a short steep climb up the "Black Mountain" and we've already a quite interesting move:

Cal Britten (search2) lost 1'28" in yesterday's ITT and gives it a go early today! He's known as a good climber, so should be rated as a stage-favorite!


Britten was later later joined by two more escapees (Costello, Bowman) and the three built a lead of 4minutes halfway through the stage..

..37km before finish, more riders try to bridge the gap, that's down to 2'30" in the meantime:

Crawford (Huon)
Taylor (GPM)
Sutherland (Bianchi)!

Crawford is one of the best pure climbers in the peloton and "only" lost 41" in the timetrial. A tactical move to support Huon's captains Earle/Haig or a attempt on his own?


22km remaining and it's a thrilling race now: Britten dropped his companions and leads solo again!

And another group of well-known riders jumps behind the chasing group Crawford:

Talbot (Kangaroos)
Norris (Jayco)
Neil Van der Ploeg (search2)!

So with Norris we've another strong climber attacking early today and Van der Ploeg is the first Top-10 rider to make his move. He ain't the best climber, but definitely can survive a mountain, especially if he manages to create a gap so early.


But no luck for both early escapee Britten and the two chasing groups: with now 9km to go, the leading groups are swallowed by the bunch, which chased hard due to the dangerous groups at the front.

The attacking continues of course: Earle (Huon) is the next top-favorite launching an attack!


Again: an empty-handed first move by Earle, who is pulled back a few minutes later.

And here we go again, more favorites try to jump away:

Bayly (search2)
Clark (Charter) are followed by
Haig (Huon)
O'Brien (Budget) and
Norris (Jayco)!

An outstanding group of climbers we have here..


Norris obviously has some good legs today, he forces another attack with now only 4km to go!

He establishes a 20-seconds gap quickly, while more riders like Van der Ploeg (search2), Lapthorne (Drapac) or Gillett (African) joined the strong chasing group!

Other favorites like Earle, Crawford (Huon) or Cupitt, Evans (Budget) missed that move now, and they're already one minute behind..


2.5km remaining and Norris keeps pacing, maintaining his 20" on the chasing group, where O'Brien now tries to bridge the gap!


Lachlan Norris holds off O'Brien for a great stage-win! He struggled to do anything special so far in the season, but this win is prestigious!

O'Brien finishes 15" behind, solo. No line honours, but definitely an important result.


41" behind Norris, the chasing group with 7 favorites crosses the line:

Bayly and Van der Ploeg (search2)
Lapthorne (Drapac)
Clark (Charter Mason)
Haig (Huon)
Gillett (African Wildlife)
Semple (Satalyst)

A great result for Van der Ploeg in particular, as he limits his losses in this mountain-stage! Also worth a mention: our blogger Gillett!

Huon's Earle/Crawford (+ 1.23) and Budget's duo Cupitt/Evans (+ 2.58) lost valuable time today.


Norris also takes the race-lead! But it's a close one: O'Brien with 2" and Van der Ploeg with 7" ain't too far behind, also Haig with 8" is still in touch.

With two flat stages remaining, Van der Ploeg obviously looks like the most dangerous though, as he can score bonus seconds in bunch sprints.

National Capital Tour (Stage 3/4, two flat)

Time for the two final flat stages in Canberra! Yesterday's queen stage saw Lachlan Norris (Jayco) taking a narrow GC-lead thanks to a great ride.

Anyway, it's a close race and bonus seconds are still to be rewarded..

STAGE 3 - LAKE BURLEY GRIFFIN LOOP/


A breakaway group of six riders set the agenda early in the race and the peloton is on the chase now!

There's a two minute gap with 43km remaining and the bunch is led by Oz Cycling, Drapac and Huon-Genesys.. so it's again the sprinter-teams taking control here.


Oh, and that's bad luck for one of those sprinters: Ben Grenda (Oz) crashes on the final lap! The worst moment to fall, obviously..


An unexpected chance for the breakaway? The six escapees enter the final 5km with a 30 seconds gap and for a moment the peloton slowed down with Oz Cycling leaving the chase to support Grenda!


No chance for the escapees though. They hold off the bunch til the final km, but were left chanceless now:

Palmer (Drapac)
Van der Ploeg (search2)
Jamieson (Jayco)
Davison (Drapac)
Rogers (search2)

will battle for today's line honours! Former race-leader Jamieson as the biggest surprise here, but most important: Van der Ploeg (GC's 3rd, + 0.07) is in the mix for bonus seconds!


And he takes out the stage! Top-favorite Davison comes short as 3rd with Jamieson sprinting for 2nd..

..a huge win for Van der Ploeg, who takes the race-lead thanks to this 10 bonus seconds! With only one flat crit remaining, his 3"-lead on Norris looks promising!

STAGE 4 - CANBERRA CITY CRITERIUM/


A rather big breakaway group (9 riders) went early in this crit, but it ain't looking good with the gap being already cut down to 30" with 6km remaining!

But we've another crash, this time it's a mass crash though! And we see some well known teams being involved..


Oh no! That's horrible news for all fans of Jayco/Apollo: GC's 2nd Lachlan Norris is one of them! With only a few km to go, he won't stand a chance to come back and will lose his great GC-position.

A big group of more than 30 riders will lose minutes today, but Norris is definitely the most notable. That's awful..


Back to the front, where the bunch sprint already kicked off:

and it's again Van der Ploeg, who kicks super-strong, overtaking the last escapee Murtagh (Charter)!


Well, that's quite dominating: Van der Ploeg also takes out this crit, ahead of teammate Clarke and former NRS-leader Semple (Satalyst)!

The top-sprinters had no impact here, but it was a quite chaotic final lap with the mass crash.

So Van der Ploeg does not only celebrate two stage-wins, but also the GC-won of this inaugaral Capital Tour! A huge win for the 2nd in NRS-rankings, who is likely to claim the provisional lead!

With Norris losing his 2nd place in GC, it's O'Brien (Budget) and young gun Haig (Huon) completing the podium.

Bayly (search2) and our blogger Gillett (African) made the Top-5, scoring a nice amount of points here. Earle (Huon) slips onto 10th thanks to Norris' bad luck, and also Semple (7th) finally scores valuable points again.