Mark O'Brien did his best to stay in title-contention! The final stage-race of the season made him cut the gap to Van der Ploeg to 100 points. The prestigious hilly classic Grafton to Inverell at the very end of the season, he could re-take the lead..

Of course VdP is still in a comfortable position. -he can score points in all of the three remaining classics, so no reason to panic for him. Defending champion Davison would need two wins and VdP to totally fail.. a tough challenge.

In the team's rankings it remains a close battle between Huon and Budget, while no other team seems to be able to join the mix for the team's title.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Pts
1	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain p/b health.com.au	650
2	Mark O'Brien	Budget Forklifts	553
3	Luke Davison	Drapac Cycling	428
4	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon-Genesys	392
5	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon-Genesys	367
6	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	357
7	Scott Law	GPM Data#3	307
8	Bradley Hall	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	300
9	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon-Genesys	243
10	Matthew Clark	Charter Mason / Drapac	239
11	Jack Beckinsale	Huon Salmon-Genesys	224
12	Cameron Bayly	search2retain p/b health.com.au	217
13	Karl Evans	Budget Forklifts	213
	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	213
15	Ben Grenda	Oz Cycling Development Team	209

TEAMS RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Pts
1	Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers Pro Cycling Team	1411
2	Budget Forklifts	1390
3	search2retain p/b health.com.au	1132
4	Drapac Cycling	1121
5	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	1027
6	GPM Data#3	841
7	Euride Racing	451
8	Charter Mason / Drapac Development Team	440
9	Jayco/Apollo VIS Men’s Road Team	399
10	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	376
11	Oz Cycling Development Team	360
12	Pro Team Downunder	243
13	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	225
14	Target Trek Racing Team	150
15	Racing Kangaroos Cycling Development Program	121
16	Suzuki Bontrager	78
17	Veneziano Blefari Cycling Team	65
18	SUVelo Racing	60
19	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	50
	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	50

baia wrote:
I think Budget Forklifts will win Individual and team rankings...

Melbourne to Warrnambool (Category 1)

The Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic is an iconic Victorian sporting event being the second oldest one day cycling event in the world and the longest in the Southern hemisphere, having formerly being the longest single day race on the UCI calendar.

Being one of the most prestigious races in the NRS, this is definitely worth a visit! Be part of this tough 260km challenge.

And it's the length of this classics, which will make for a thrilling day: will a late attack survive, like Goesinnen did last year? Or will the sprinters take control?

Who will be the first to enter the uphill-finish?

Blogging rider(s)/

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Melbourne to Warrnambool (flat classic, 260km)

Time to kick off the second oldest one day cycling event in the world - time for the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic!

260km and crosswinds, some short climbs and a challenging uphill finish.. what else can you ask for? Will we see defending race-winner Goesinnen (Drapac) repeating his victory? Or maybe last year's runner-up Donnelly (Huon) going for more this time? Or will the sprinters take out this flat classic?


3 riders try their luck with an early attempt, with still 240km to go though:

Derecourt (Bianchi)
Copp (ProTeam DU)
Donald (search2retain)!


They establish a comfortable gap quickly.. so time for us to enjoy the scenery and sunshine!


With 150km remaining the peloton starts to chase, we've reached a gap of 8'20" by now.

Crosswinds of 49km/h make for another difficulty today, but sprinter-teams like Oz Cycling and Suzuki take that challenge nevertheless!


The bunch cuts down the gap to 3'30" with now "only" 67km remaining! We've seen no more attacks so far.

Also on today's toughest climb by Camperdown (also featured in the Great South Coast Tour) no one tried to break clear..


But here we go! Jack Anderson (Budget) soloes away from the chasing peloton with 35km to go!

He's facing a 1'30"-gap on the early escapees, who have been in the lead for 200km now..


Anderson was the only one to attack late in the race and he easily catches up to the escapees and drops Donald as the last of them with now 20km to go!

The peloton is 52" in arrears and still sets a high pace to hold off this late attempt!


10km remaining..

Anderson looks strong, actually very strong! The peloton - still led by Oz Cycling, Suzuki and (joined by) search2 - struggles to narrow the gap, which is still at a minute!


Solo-escapee Anderson can already smell the victory!

He reaches the flamme rouge with the same gap as the previous 20km! What a brave effort..


And just like last year, the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic is won by rather late breakaway attempt:

Jack Anderson (Budget) celebrates his biggest victory so far in his career! And it's also a huge win for Budget Forklifts, which still aims for the team's title.


Bad news for Budget's captain Mark O'Brien though:

NRS-leader Neil Van der Ploeg (search2) manages to finish as 5th today, scoring valuable points in addition to his already 100-points-lead!

47" behind Anderson, a surprising strong Brendan Johnston (Suzuki) and Caleb Jones (GPM) complete the podium, beating top-sprinter Luke Davison (Drapac) in a three-men-sprint to the line!

Grenda (6th) is another sprinter who did well and some puncheurs complete the Top-10: Hall, Wohler and last year's winner and runner-up Goesinnen/Donnelly.

We've seen an interesting race and an incredible effort by Anderson today! Even though one might have hoped for more late attacks like Anderson's..

Have we seen the decision for the NRS-title? The battle between Van der Ploeg and O'Brien ain't over, but the 169-points lead for VdP looks quite save now.. with only two races left (the flat Shipwreck classic and the tough hilly Grafton to Inverell) O'Brien would need to win the latter for 180 points and VdP to score less than 11 points!

So VdP's 5th place in Warrnambool was very important, as only a few people would bet for him to fail in both remaining classics! Warrnambool-winner Jack Anderson scored his first points this year, btw.

Also the team's ranking saw some notable changes: Budget scored the full points (220) in Warrnambool and re-took the lead in the rankings. But more important: Huon couldn't finish high (40 points) and lost valuable ground!

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Pts
1	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain p/b health.com.au	722
2	Mark O'Brien	Budget Forklifts	553
3	Luke Davison	Drapac Cycling	509
4	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon-Genesys	392
5	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon-Genesys	367
6	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	357
7	Bradley Hall	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	354
8	Scott Law	GPM Data#3	307
9	Ben Grenda	Oz Cycling Development Team	272
10	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon-Genesys	270
11	Matthew Clark	Charter Mason / Drapac	239
12	Jack Beckinsale	Huon Salmon-Genesys	224
13	Cameron Bayly	search2retain p/b health.com.au	217
14	Karl Evans	Budget Forklifts	213
	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	213

TEAMS RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Pts
1	Budget Forklifts	1610
2	Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers Pro Cycling Team	1451
3	search2retain p/b health.com.au	1292
4	Drapac Cycling	1261
5	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	1147
6	GPM Data#3	1021
7	Charter Mason / Drapac Development Team	540
8	Euride Racing	511
9	Jayco/Apollo VIS Men’s Road Team	479
10	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	386
11	Oz Cycling Development Team	370
12	Pro Team Downunder	253
13	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	235
14	Target Trek Racing Team	160
15	Racing Kangaroos Cycling Development Program	131
16	Suzuki Bontrager	88
17	Veneziano Blefari Cycling Team	85
18	SUVelo Racing	70
19	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	60
20	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	50