Tour of Toowoomba (Stage 4, Flat, 110km)

Two flat stages will conclude the Tour of Toowoomba, but both this 4th stage to Glenvale and the final criterium in Toowoomba ain't as easy as 'flat' could mean.

With several short climbs and an uphill-finish on Glenvale Criterium Circuit, today's profile may suit a puncheur more than a pure sprinter - like last season, when Donnelly (Huon) took out the stage ahead of O'Brien and Lapthorne.


Josh Taylor (GPM) was the only one to stay clear from an early breakaway attempt, so the well known fighter seems to go for a long solo-ride (79km)!


Tough weather conditions (rain, 70kmh crosswinds) make for an interesting race, with the peloton stretched out and a minor split (no GC-contenders involved) happening as well.

14km to go, and Taylor leads by 1'10" on the chasing bunch, where Satalyst and Euride do most of the work.


9km remaining and with only one short climb left, two GC-riders try a late attack:

Hucker (Drapac, GC's 6th + 1.47)
Norris (Jayco, GC's 7th)

will rather go for attacking the Top-5 than race-leader O'Brien, but who knows what can happen on a day like today?


We all know! Taylor enters the Glenvale Criterium Circuit with a 40"-gap and looks like today's winner..

..in other news, the attacking duo Hucker/Norris has been swallowed by the peloton, so no luck yet.


Let's keep this short: Josh "Stage-hunter" Taylor takes out Toowoomba's 4th stage out of a solo-breakaway! Well done.


At least for the GC, there's more interesting news behind though! Like last year, the tricky uphill finish suits the stage-racers more than the sprinters and a group of 7 riders will fight for the remaining bonus seconds:

Semple (GC's 4th + 0.50)
Anderson (5th + 0.57)
O'Brien (race-leader)
Earle (3rd + 0.48)
Donnelly (last year's winner here in Glenvale)
Sulzberger
Bayly (2nd, + 0.17)

So the GC's Top-5 will fight for maybe crucial bonus seconds!


Adam Semple sprints for 2nd, 30" behind Taylor! Anderson 3rd ahead of O'Brien and Earle..

So yes, we will see some minor - but notable - changes in the GC's Top-5 today!

Semple jumps from 4th to 3rd thanks to his finish today and Anderson narrows the gap to Earle, who dropped off the podium by 4". Still one similar tricky crit left though!

Tour of Toowoomba (Stage 5, Flat, 53km)

The final stage in Toowoomba features a tough and fast criterium, with a short climb that has to be raced 8 times.. yesterday's finish looked similar and the sprinters struggled to do anything good.

So will this criterium even make for some changes in the close GC - like it did last year, when O'Brien (now leading the race) attacked the bunch to take out both stage and GC?


Speaking of SUVelo first: Connor Hughes is part of today's breakaway, leading the group through the early rain. It's been quiet around Sydney's University team lately, but that will change now!


The 9-men-breakaway with Hepburn (GPM) and Flakemore (Tasmania) as the most notable names is soon to be caught with now only 5km remaining! Yes, we're already in the final moments of this crit..


Or are we wrong and will the escapees hold on to their small gap?

We're on the uphill-finish (700 metres to go) and three of the escapees kicked off the sprint ahead of the nearing bunch:

O'Callaghan (Lightsview)
Michel (Charter Mason) and
Hepburn (GPM)!


No chance. They three are swallowed by the sprinting bunch close before finish and won't be in the mix for the stage-win!

Bonus-seconds could be crucial again, as some of the GC-contenders are leading the sprint - without a gap yet though:

Semple (GC's 3rd + 0.44)
Earle (GC's 4th + 0.48)

are the most promising here and the two could swith positions again, if Earle manages to finish ahead of Semple this time!

Also in the mix: Van der Ploeg, Tobin (search2), Giacoppo (Huon) and Hucker (Drapac)..


Adam Semple takes it! An important stage-win, even though Earle couldn't hold on to his speed and dropped to 11th eventually.

Van der Ploeg and Giacoppo complete today's podium. Most important news: no gap for Semple, so O'Brien (16th) finished safely within the bunch..


He makes it three in a row! Mark'Brien wins the Tour of Toowoomba - yet again. An impressive ride.

Cameron Bayly finishes as great 2nd (17 seconds behind), with Semple completing the podium (34 sec)! So all of the Top-3 grabbed one stage-win at least, so this is what you call a well deserved podium then!

Earle might have hoped for more, but did better than last year: 4th place ahead of "local hero" Jack Anderson, who was expected to attack Earle in that final crit.

Hucker (Drapac), Norris (Jayco), Bonello (GPM), Carpenter (Euride) and Lapthorne (Drapac) round up the Top-10, while our blogger Gillett (African Wildlife) missed the points-ranks by 6 seconds.

sutty68 wrote:
After such a poor showing, Budget will be happy with the fifth place by Anderson

Earle re-takes the NRS-lead from teammate Haig, who skipped the recently held Tour of Toowoomba. It's still a close ranking, of course, with only three events finished.. O'Brien is back where he finished last season, ahead of Van der Ploeg, who couldn't make the Top-10 in Toowoomba, but who scored 3 points thanks to good stage-finishes.. Anderson, Semple, Haig and Lapthorne look like the biggest contenders behind, but it's still too early to make predictions.

The team's rankings did change, too. Both Huon (still in the lead) and Budget couldn't take the team's classification in Toowoomba, which went to Euride instead. The duo O'Brien/Carpenter looks like one of the most potent duos in the NRS, plus the team's strength in TTs, this makes for a quite promising team.. search2retain and Drapac complete the Top-5 for now, but both Jayco and Satalyst had some good individual results as well.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon - Genesys	24
2	Mark O'Brien	Euride Racing	22
3	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain	20
	Jack Anderson	Budget Forklifts	20
5	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing	18
6	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon - Genesys	17
7	Darren Lapthorne	Drapac Cycling	16
8	Lachlan Norris	Jayco - Honey Shotz	13
	Cameron Bayly	search2retain	13
10	Alexander Morgan	Jayco - Honey Shotz	11
11	Joe Cooper	Huon Salmon - Genesys	9
	Daniel Bonello	GPM Data#3	9
	Harry Carpenter	Euride Racing	9
14	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	7
15	Robbie Hucker	Drapac Cycling	5
	David Edwards	Subway Cycling Team	5

TEAM RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Points
1	Huon Salmon - Genesys	44
2	Budget Forklifts	35
3	Euride Racing	34
4	Drapac Cycling	29
	search2retain	29
6	Jayco - Honey Shotz	23
7	Satalyst Giant Racing	18
8	GPM Data#3	14
9	Target Trek Racing Team	8
10	Subway Cycling Team	7
11	Pro Team Downunder	5
12	African Wildlife Safaris	4
13	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	3
	Racing Kangaroos	3
15	Downer EDI Mining	2
	SUVelo Racing	2
	Suzuki Bontrager	2
18	Veneziano Blefari	1
	Charter Mason / Drapac DT	1
	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	1
	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	1

The peloton chasing the last few escapees..


Anderson and O'Brien leading on Bunya Hill..


O'Brien with his winning move on the same climb..


A group with Bonello (GPM) climbing to the line..


O'Brien shows his new shirt on the top of the podium!