[img-r]https://imageshack.com/a/img855/5476/e95u.png[/img-r]Team Ranking 2013/ -
Best Individual/ Ben Grenda (11th, 282 points, riding for Oz Cycling)

Watch for/ Alex Clements - The promising climber will aim for the toughest races on the schedule, with two of them (Mersey Valley, Tasmania Tour) held on "home soil". Coming off a solid season for Huon-Genesys (38th in the individual's ranking), Clements should provide some points for the team, that took a break from the NRS in 2013.

Roster 2014/




Ben Grenda was amongst the best sprinters in the NRS last year, finishing the season as 11th in the final rankings! His personal goal will be a Top-3 in the prestigious Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic, where he did well as 6th last season.

[img-r]https://imageshack.com/a/img401/2885/ho1i.png[/img-r]Team Ranking 2013/ -
Best Individual/ Mitchell Lovelock-Fay (38th, 45 points, riding for Oz Cycling)

Watch for/ David Edwards* - One of several good TTers for the new team that took over the NRS spot from Oz Cycling Development Team (which may appear as a "guest team" in some races). The South Australia based Edwards will try to help Subway to shine in "his" Adelaide Tour, where the TTT will be crucial for the final GC.

*his TT-stat as shown in the roster is outdated. He will have 72 TT.

Roster 2014/




Cameron Wurf (2nd from the left) focussed on the Victorian Road Series in 2013, riding for Austal-Subway and taking the VRS-title thanks to his win in the Tour of the South West early in the year. He did only ride two NRS-events though and it will be interesting to see, how he performs on "higher" level. One thing is for sure: his great allround skills will help him to compete with the best in less mountainous stage-races!

Date	Event	Preview	Winner
9.1.	Australia Road NC	x	x
14.3.	Oceania Road Championships	x	x
14.4.	Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort Classic	o	x
21.4.	Mersey Valley Tour	o	x
2.5.	Tour de Perth	x	x
9.5.	Tour of Toowoomba	o	x
11.5.	Phillip Island Grand Prix	x	x
24.5.	Adelaide Tour	o	x
19.6.	Preston Mountain Classic	o	x
20.6.	North West Tour	o	x
31.7.	Tour of Gippsland	o	x
10.8.	Tour of Geelong	x	x
18.8.	Tour of the Great South Coast	o	x
24.8.	Sam Miranda Road Race	x	x
3.9.	Tour of the Murray River	o	x
20.9.	National Capital Tour	o	x
22.9.	Midlands Tour	x	x
25.9.	Launceston to New Norfolk	o	x
29.9.	Tour of Tasmania	o	x
12.10.	Melbourne to Warrnambool	o	x
13.10.	Shipwreck Coast	o	x
20.10.	Golbourn to Sydney	x	x
26.10.	Grafton to Inverell	o	x
27.10.	Stratford to Dargo	x	x
29.11.	Tour of Bright (Final)	o	x

indicates Victoria State Road Series-events
indicates NRS-events
indicates South Australian events
indicates other Australian/Oceanian events
o indicates "link available"
x indicates "not"

TheManxMissile wrote:
Awesome, won't have to wait long to see X in action at Y, and then B at C and even Q and R... YAY

The 2014 season in Australia is ready to kick off and the Road National Championships will be definitely one of the highlights!

Some of the most succesful riders from the NRS will compete with some of the best cyclists from Australia, with teams like Orica-GreenEdge, Sky or Garmin lining up for this prestigious event.

Check out, who's going to wear the Australian NC-shirt in 2014! Will Luke Durbridge defend his title, which he took in style one year ago? Or will a NRS-rider like Jack Anderson or Mark O'Brien be able to "fool" the World Tour-participants?

Simon Clarke (Orica)	Luke Durbridge (Orica)
Cameron Meyer (Orica)	Jack Anderson (Budget)
Mark O'Brien (Euride)	Jack Haig (Huon Genesys)
William Walker (Drapac)	Jack Bobridge (Blanco)
Rohan Dennis (Garmin)	Matthew Lloyd (Lotto)
Neil Van der Ploeg (search2)	Chris Sutton (Sky)

*for some reason, some names are missing in the startlist: Porte (let's say he was caught for doping or stuff), Earle or Renshaw. But it should be fun nevertheless!

The Australian NC Road Race 2014 is ready to kick off and we're looking forward to an exciting day! Defending champion Luke Durbridge (Orice), who's won this year's TT-title again, will be one of today's favorites, but he faces some tough competition.

Even though some big names (Porte, Goss, Gerrans or NRS-star Earle) won't be at the start, this won't make for a less interesting race. Who knows? It may lead to a more open battle for the title, with NRS-riders like O'Brien or Anderson having a realistic chance to slip into the NC-shirt!


We've already reached the final 100km of the race and the peloton - led by Orica, Huon-Genesys and Euride - starts to chase an 11-men-breakaway group, which leads by 5'21" by now..


The escapees fight hard to defend their gap. Most notable names in this rather big group are

Graeme Brown (Blanco)
Joel Strachan (Target Trek)
Riley Maule (Data#3)
Daniel Bonello (GPM) and
Andrew Roe (Euride)

Their lead is down to less than 2 minutes with now 40km..


And now as we enter the final three laps of the loop (34km to go), the "real action" in the peloton begins:

Jack Haig (Huon) tries to solo away from the bunch, which is now led by Orica and Budget-Forklifts! Haig, winner of the Grafton to Inverell Classic last year (and 3rd in the NRS), is going for a rather early move!


The young gun tried for about 15km, but 20km before finish Haig is caught by the now hard chasing peloton!

Haig, aged 21, has made himself a name and even a WT-team like Orica won't allow him to establish a gap that early, it seems.

In the meantime the early escaping group's lead is down to a minute..


And another lap later (8km remaining) we see more attacks out of the pack and this time it's a double-attack:

Simon Clarke and
Cameron Meyer (Orica)

launch their move on today's final climb and they are quickly catching up to the last two early escapees

Brown and
James Meadly (Austal-Subway)!


Jack Anderson (Budget) is the first of the favorites trying to follow this impressive move by Orica!

The Melbourne to Warrnambool-champion jumps behind, facing a 20"-gap to the new leading trio (Clarke, Meyer, early escapee Brown) with now 7km to go!


The Orica-Duo keeps pacing and drops Brown easily!

With 5km remaining, Clarke/Meyer lead by 18" on Anderson/Brown..


..and 39" behind the leading group, solo-chaser Mark O'Brien (Euride) tries to be in the mix for the podium, at least.

A tough challenge with the route going more or less downhill from now on..


We're entering the final km and the first chasing group with Anderson and veteran Brown couldn't really narrow the gap:

they're 25" in arrears and with Brown being quite passive after his long day in the break (and his chance to outsprint Anderson), it ain't looking good..


But it's looking good for Orica:

Meyer (in leading position) and Clarke will fight for the title! Who's going to take it?


It's Cameron Meyer! A great sprint, teammate Clarke couldn't benefit from his better position.

So no NRS-glory today, as also Jack Anderson missed the podium. Oldie Graeme Brown couldn't join his effort for the chase anyway and "simply" tried to hang on and rely on his speed.

O'Brien finished 5th ahead of the bunch, where Dennis (Garmin), Sutton (Sky), Carpenter (Euride), Walker (Drapac) and Matthews (Orica) complete the Top-10.

Selwink wrote:
Is it this iPad acting weird or are there really riders 4h behind?