Tour of Gippsland (Day 3&4, flat crit + RR)

We're heading for the third and fourth day here in and around Geelong and again it's a criterium (Portartlington) followed by a road race (Portartlington to St Leonard loop)! The crit features a speedbump, so will we see a surprising move or the sprinters dominating the race?

Race-leader Luke Davison certainly will hope for the latter, he looked quite strong so far.

STAGE 3 - PORTARTLINGTON CRITERIUM/


And Davison is at least in the mix for the stage-win, yet again! We're already on the final km and it came down to a bunch sprint with no major splits in the peloton this time (except of Huon's leadout Beckinsale crashing out)!

Johnston (Suzuki), Davison (Drapac), Horgan (Budget), Giacoppo (Huon) and Law (GPM) are the very front of the bunch..


And it looks like a thrilling head-to-finish between Law and Davison! The two established a small gap on Giacoppo, so it should be between this two here..


Law wins ahead of Davison! He once again proves that he's amongst the very best sprinters in the NRS.. Horgan completes the podium - a nice result ahead of sprinters like Giacoppo, Van der Ploeg or Strachan.

Davison remains in the race-lead, because of Law losing minutes due to a split the day before.. Donnelly 5" behind as 2nd with teammate Giacoppo at 6" on 3rd.

STAGE 4 - PORTARLINGTON TO ST LEONARDS ROAD RACE/


So let's get right to the action in the road race - and it's again big news in the bunch due to crosswinds leading to a major split!

Drapac and GPM pulled the strings hard in order to catch a 5-men-break (which still leads by a minute with 3km remaining) and only 48 riders managed to stay in the first peloton! Most notable names being dropped:

Giacoppo (Huon, GC's 3rd)
Grenda (Tasmania, 7th)!

So two more GC-contenders will lose minutes and all hopes for a good overall result here!


Still about a minute in front, Jayden Copp (ProTeamDU) dropped his breakaway companions and fights hard to hold off the chasing bunch! Will he succeed?


He does! A nice win for Copp, who also lost minutes in the stages before, but who now could at least score a great stage-win.

The peloton came close, but the other four early escapees took the remaining bonus seconds, with Carpenter and Hannaford completing the podium!


Davison retains the yellow shirt and there's no need to say that he's one of the big winners of this tough stage:

with Giacoppo and Grenda, two more sprinters lost all GC-changes today and Davison leads the race by 5" on Donnelly, 7" on Wohler and 8" on sprinter Johnston! With one flat but again tricky crit in Geelong left, this looks good. But we've seen many splits here so far, so you better take care, Luke..

Tour of Gippsland (Stage 5, flat crit)

Final stage in the Tour of Geelong - and what could be a better ending than a criterium in Geelong "downtown"?

Race-leader Davison looked extraordinary strong, being one of only a few sprinters to avoid any time losses due to major splits so far. Will crosswinds be a factor again today?


No heavy crosswinds today, but still a tough and fast crit. The peloton again went into pieces, but so huge gaps and no bigger names involved this time.

The sprint is already on it's way as the riders come down the finishing stretch! Palmer with the leadout for Davison, who's in the mix again.. as well as Grenda, Strachan and Edmondson.


Palmer with a perfect leadout for Davison so far, Grenda can't follow! On the left, there's Strachan (Target) as the only one to challenge Davison for the win..


A great finishing sprint secures the victory for Joel Strachan! Davison takes 2nd to score another podium-finish.

Also Wohler (Budget) did well again, completing the podium for valuable bonus seconds. Tobin (search2) and Palmer close behind.. no luck for either Grenda (6th), Law (9th) or Giacoppo (10th)..


It's a well deserved overall win for Luke Davison and his good working Drapac squad! "Only" one stage-win but several podiums (plus winning the sprint-competition) will give him well needed points for the NRS rankings.

Wohler did great, too. Despite the team's sprinter Kerrison crashing out of any GC-contention, Wohler managed to bring home a couple of nice finishes (like today) and grabs good points. Same goes for Huon's Donnelly as 3rd, while Giacoppo definitely had hoped for more.

Strachan and Johntson complete the Top-5 ahead of Horgan (Budget), Tobin, Jamieson, Hall and Palmer.. so good results for teams like Budget, Target and of course Drapac in particular!

Luke Davison, former NRS champion and last year's 4th, is back in the Top-10 thanks to 20 points collected in the Tour of Geelong! The top-sprinter was almost the only pure sprinter to avoid any trouble with splits or crashes and scored a couple of good stage-finishes (including one win) and the overall GC!

Also Budget's Alex Wohler proved that he's worth a closer look this year, jumping on a provisional 4th in the rankings thanks to his second place in Geelong! Same goes for Huon's Donnelly.. so with other sprinters like Giacoppo, Law, Kerrison or Grenda failing to score big time in Geelong, it looks like Davison will be the only pure sprinter to challenge the stage-racers..

In the team's rankings, Drapa (17 points) and also Budget (16) were the big winners in Geelong, narrowing the gap to still leading Huon (12). Euride (7) didn't do anything special in Geelong, even though they had a quite promising duo in Edmondson/Gill..

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Mark O'Brien	Euride Racing	47
2	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon - Genesys	35
3	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon - Genesys	29
4	Alex Wohler	Budget Forklifts	28
5	Robbie Hucker	Drapac Cycling	26
6	Luke Davison	Drapac Cycling	25
7	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain	24
8	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon - Genesys	23
9	Jack Anderson	Budget Forklifts	22
10	Stuart Smith	search2retain	20
11	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing	18
	Joe Cooper	Huon Salmon - Genesys	18
13	Darren Lapthorne	Drapac Cycling	16
14	Cameron Bayly	search2retain	15
15	Lachlan Norris	Jayco - Honey Shotz	14

TEAM RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Points
1	Huon Salmon - Genesys	93
2	Budget Forklifts	84
3	Drapac Cycling	80
4	Euride Racing	74
5	search2retain	62
6	Jayco - Honey Shotz	48
7	GPM Data#3	41
8	Satalyst Giant Racing	34
9	Target Trek Racing Team	29
10	Pro Team Downunder	16
11	Charter Mason / Drapac DT	15
12	African Wildlife Safaris	12
13	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	11
14	Downer EDI Mining	10
	Suzuki Bontrager	10
16	Subway Cycling Team	8
	Racing Kangaroos	8
18	SUVelo Racing	5
19	St George Skoda HP Team	3
	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	3
	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	3
22	Veneziano Blefari	2

Pure Tasmania leading the bunch in the North Shore crit..


Early attacks in the road race from Lara to You Yangs..


Crosswinds and a stretched peloton were often to be seen!


A breakaway group at the sea in Portarlington crit..


A breakaway group at the sea in St Leonards..

baia wrote:
Nice pics again mate, ..

Tour of the Great South Coast

The Tour of the Great South Coast was first held in 2012 and was an enormous success. Conducted in Victoria's rugged and spectacular south-west region, the 5-day tour attracted more than 150 competitors from all Australian states & territories, New Caledonia and New Zealand.

And last year's edition was a success, too, thanks to a thrilling final stage and exciting days of racing in general. While the stages weren't as selective as some might have hoped for, the battle for bonus seconds proved to be interesting.


+ 4 flat crits




Bradley Hall took out the 2013 edition thanks to his win of the final stage around Camperdown: in a thrilling three-men-sprint with race-leader Earle and GC's 2nd O'Brien, the veteran collected the crucial bonus seconds! Crash-victims like Haig or Cupitt couldn't score a good GC-result, so we saw some surprises like Carman finishing as 5th.

Earle and Cupitt attacked in the first hilly stage, a crucial move..

Huon on the chase on dirt roads..

Huon on the chase alongside the Great South Coast..

Earle, O'Brien and Hall sprinting to line: a thrilling finish!

Tour of the Great South Coast (Preview #2)

O'Brien (Euride), Haig (Huon), Anderson (Budget), Norris (Jayo), Bayly/Sheppard (search2)

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Earle_zpscccbc98e.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Nathan Earle (Huon Salmon - Genesys)
Key stats/ HI 75
The pressure is on Earle now, as O'Brien delivered in Gippsland for a comfortable lead. Earle's of course the top-favorite in this kinda tricky race..

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_NeilVanderPloeg_zps9f1165f0.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Neil Van der Ploeg (search2retain)
Key stats/ HI 71, SPR 71
VdP decided to skip the completly flat Geelong Tour in order to prepare for the second half of the season, where he crushed the competition in 2013.. also here?

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_WiWalker_zpse14f53a2.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]William Walker (Drapac)
Key stats/ HI 73
Walker finally brought in a good GC-result in Gippsland, finishing 2nd behind O'Brien for his first points in 2014! He loves to race in Victoria, so here he is!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Semple_zps6a7c539a.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Adam Semple (Satalyst Giant)
Key stats/ HI 73
Except of a 3rd place in Toowoomba, Semple hasn't had a special season yet. This race may suit him without an ITT and some hilly stages. Ne needs results.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Wohler_zps411eaea9.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Alex Wohler (Budget Forklifts)
Key stats/ FL 75, HI 69, SPR 69
Wohler's 2nd place in the recently finished Geelong Tour was quite impressive and his decent allround skills pay off this season! Definitely worth a look.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Wurf_zps678ac5a7.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Cameron Wurf (Subway)
Key stats/ HI 71
Wurf hasn't scored any points since the Tour de Perth (3 pts) and just 4 in total! He skipped some races though, but definitely needs to prove he's a GC-contender.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Carpenter_zps7e3d0035.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Harry Carpenter (Euride)
Key stats/ HI 70
Carpenter managed to grab a nice stage-win here back in 2013 - but was no GC-contender. With O'Brien missing, this may change now! He has chances for sure.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Hucker_zps910367a9.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Robbie Hucker (Drapac)
Key stats/ FL 71, HI 71, SPR 67
Like Wohler, also Hucker may be one of the bigger surprises this season, even though his success (5th in the NRS by now) ain't coming from out of nowhere..

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Edmondson_zps3a233c54.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Alex Edmondson (Euride)
Key stats/ HI 69, SPR 73
Edmondson had a totally disappointing Geelong Tour and needs to bounce back here. His skills seem to be a perfect "setup" for this race, so he better delivers.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Kaesler_zps2a32cc39.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Tom Kaesler (Euride)
"I guess we should expect us to do well here, to be honest.. the mix of flat and maybe not too selective hilly stages will suit especially Edmondson quite well, and Carpenter already took out a stage here in 2013, so.."