Tour of Great South (Day 5, hilly 91km RR)

Today's hilly circuit around Camperdown is likely to mix things up, unless a breakaway is allowed to stay clear and we see no attacks - like last season, where a thrilling sprint for bonus seconds made for an interesting final stage anyway!


An early break has been caught with still 27km (2 laps) to go and now Trent Carman (Downer EDI) tries to solo away from the bunch! He's not a favorite, but still a quite dangerous rider (GC + 0.36)..


It's an empty-handed attempt though, but the attacking now continues with a new group of 4 riders launching a move:

Ben Carman (Downer EDI, so it's the brother's turn now)
Gillett (African Wildlife)
Hamilton (Jayco)
Carpenter (Euride)

All of them are + 0.40 in GC and definitely not the worst puncheurs. 20km (two climbs) remaining..


This group established a 2'00"-gap quickly and the peloton struggles to narrow this gap with now only one lap to go! We're already entering today's final climb near to Camperdown and it's time for the top-favorites to jump behind the leading group:

Semple (Satalyst)
Wurf (Subway)
Walker (Drapac)
Cupitt (Budget, race-leader)
Earle (Huon)
Davies (St George)
Smith (search2)

as well as Taylor (GPM) and Murtagh (Charter Mason) attack on this climb! Too late or just in time?


We don't know yet.. all we know is, that the gap's down to a minute soon and in the meantime Gillett and Hamilton dropped their companions and enter the final 3km!


And it becomes interesting now after that climb, as the chasing group of favorites went into pieces as well! 2km to go, here's the new situation:

E1/

Gillett
Hamilton (both GC + 0.40)

E2/

Walker (GC's 4th,+ 0.08) at 1.00

E3/

Cupitt (race-leader)
Semple (+ 0.16)
Smith
Carpenter (both + 0.40)
Wurf (+ 0.06) at 1.12

E4/

Earle (+ 0.12)
Edmondson (+ 0.22) at 1.41

P/

with Van der Ploeg, Giacoppo, Hucker, Hall at 2.54

We see Earle fighting to re-join the first chasing group, where GC's 4th Walker managed to create a small gap with a solo-attempt to catch up to the leading duo! GC-leader Cupitt would now lose his yellow, as the gap to this duo is still too big..


Thomas Hamilton (Jayco) takes out the final stage of the GSC-Tour, ahead of our blogger Rhys Gillett! A great win and looking back at where Walker is, this may even be their chance to fool the top-favorites for an unexpected GC-win!


Walker crossed the line as 3rd, just 30" behind Hamilton.. so he made up some ground, will it be enough to take the GC-win for him?

Current race-leader Cupitt comes in with 55" on Hamilton, leading a group with Wurf, Semple and also Earle.. this is certainly too less to defend the lead on both Hamilton and Gillett!


Hamilton also grabs yellow on this final day! What a huge win for Jayco and Hamilton this must be.. same goes for Gillett, who grabs the 2nd place in GC! His best result in the NRS so far in his career.

Drapac's Walker adds another podium to his season's palmares after finishing 2nd in Gippsland. His 3rd now (+ 0.11) proves the good shape of the whole Drapac team at the moment.

Cupitt drops onto 4th, ahead of Wurf and top-favorite Earle. Especially the latter had hoped for more than a 6th place in GC here, but today has shown that anything can happen in the NRS.

Semple, Carpenter, Stu Smith and Davies complete the GC's Top-10.. rather disappointing for Van der Ploeg, who looked so consistent and strong here so far. He scored some good points, but misses out on a good GC-result.

Big winners of the recently held Great South Coast Tour were of course Thomas Hamilton (Jayco) and our blogger Rhys Gillett (AWS). The latter enters the NRS Top-15 for the first time in his career. But not only those two guys collected some nice points.

Cupitt (12 pts), Walker (11) and also Neil Van der Ploeg (10) did quite well, even though all had hoped for a better GC-result. Defending NRS champion Van der Ploeg lost a Top-5 on final day. So he scored his 10 points through stage-finishes only! Quite impressive performance, which makes him jump onto 3rd in the NRS.

Former leader Nathan Earle (6) definitely had hoped for more, especially as O'Brien managed to win the Gippsland Tour a few weeks back! With now 6 points in arrears, he needs to put some pressure on O'Brien in his next appearance... also top-sprinter Davison failed to score valuable points this time: a performance like Giacoppo's (8) and Davison would have been a serious NRS contender!

Team Budget may be considered the "loser" in the team's rankings this time: with Drapac (14 points) and Euride (17) scoring big time, Budget (10) is now one of three teams desperately trying to hang on with Huon (17), which will be happy with the rather huge lead in the rankings by now.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Mark O'Brien	Euride Racing	47
2	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon - Genesys	41
3	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain	34
4	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon - Genesys	29
5	Alex Wohler	Budget Forklifts	28
6	Robbie Hucker	Drapac Cycling	26
7	Luke Davison	Drapac Cycling	25
	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	25
9	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon - Genesys	23
10	Jack Anderson	Budget Forklifts	22
	Stuart Smith	search2retain	22
	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing	22
13	William Walker	Drapac Cycling	21
14	Rhys Gillett	African Wildlife Safaris	19
15	Joe Cooper	Huon Salmon - Genesys	18

TEAM RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Points
1	Huon Salmon - Genesys	110
2	Budget Forklifts	94
	Drapac Cycling	94
4	Euride Racing	91
5	search2retain	75
6	Jayco - Honey Shotz	58
7	GPM Data#3	43
	Satalyst Giant Racing	43
9	Target Trek Racing Team	30
10	African Wildlife Safaris	24
11	Pro Team Downunder	17
12	Charter Mason / Drapac DT	16
	Subway Cycling Team	16
14	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	11
	Downer EDI Mining	11
	Suzuki Bontrager	11
17	Racing Kangaroos	9
18	SUVelo Racing	5
19	St George Skoda HP Team	4
	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	4
21	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	3
	Veneziano Blefari	3

Huon - Genesys leading the bunch into the final 5km..


Huon's duo Beckinsale/Giacoppo kicking off the sprint..


A breakaway at "Blue Lake" in the Mt Gambier road race..


Wurf and Cupitt sprint ahead of the group of GC-contenders..


Huon and Drapac leading the peloton in the Portland crit..


Cameron Karwowski (Subway) trying to solo away from the breakaway..


Jason Spencer (Charter Mason) attacks the bunch late in the race..


Edmondson (Euride) and Law (GPM) kicking off the sprint..


Hamilton (Jayco) and Gillett (AWS) with their crucial escaping attempt..

Sam Miranda Road Race

A short break in the NRS and time for Victorian Road Series to continue! It will be the two last events before the VRS highlights Stratford to Drago and the Tour of Bright, so a good chance for the contenders to score valuable points.


The first of this two one day classics - the Sam Miranda Road Race - is a rather easy hilly race, with the crucial climbs already to be climbed halfway through the 100km. As always, our blogger Rhys Gillett - currently 5th in the VRS - will write the reports:

"After grabbing my first NRS-podium ever in the recently held Great South Coast, I was of course more than motivated to build on this great feelings and grab at least one win in this VRS-events.. me and some other favorites like Elliott (Target), Crome (Charter Mason) and Spencer (Charter) attacked the bunch with 12km to go, with a 7-men-breakaway still ahead by 25 seconds."


"So it was a similar race like last year. Our group of favorites caught up to the early escapees, but couldn't drop them on the flat.

It was a tough finish this year and I had to fight hard, especially as Peter Mueller (Austal) launched a late move. A strong effort, as he was one of those early escapees!

But it's Sam Crome taking out this race ahead of Mueller and Milostic! Crome already won the last VRS-event, so he's a serious contender now! I sprinted for a solid 5th, which is fine - and actually better than last year, where I only got a 9th place with my teammate Nelson winning though."

Final Results/

1	Sam Crome	Charter Mason / Drapac DT	2h18'48
2	Peter Mueller	Austal - Subway Racing Team	+ 7
3	Peter Milostic	Jayco Composite Team	+ 18
4	Joseph Lewis	GPM Data#3	s.t.
5	Rhys Gillett	African Wildlife Safaris	+ 28
6	Nicolas Sanderson	Melbourne Unibicycles	s.t.
7	Riley Maule	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	s.t.
8	Jesse Kerrison	Budget Forklifts	s.t.
9	Tom Donald	search2retain	+ 35
10	Lachie Edwards	St George Skoda HP Team	s.t.

Midlands Tour

A hilly circuit on Australian Automotive Research Centre, with a short sector of compacted gravel on today's climb. Again, Rhys Gillett will comment on the action here.


"Don't know if you remember, folks, but I took out the 2013 edition of the Midlands Tour! So of course I was going to repeat this victory this year.

Things went well, as I was the first of the favorites to catch up to the breakaway with 15km remaining. Maybe a bit too early, but I wanted to put some pressure on guys like Crome."


"And it paid off - at least in a way. Only three more favorites - Elliott, Spencer and McCarthy (Budget) - managed to join me and early escapees, who once again wouldn't be dropped til the finish.

That was bad news, as one of the most talented sprinters in the NRS was part of this break: Jesse Kerrison! So he was of course in the mix for the win! I suffered from my rather early move, so with only a few metres to go, it already knew I wouldn't stand a chance to repeat my last year's success."


"So it was Nathan Elliott ahead of Jason Spencer and Kerrison! A great win for Elliott in particular, as he's aiming for the VRS-title just like me.

I sprinted for another Top-5 as 4th here, so definitely not bad. I'm already looking forward to the final two events in this Series, which will most probably attract some well known NRS-riders again."

Final Results/

1	Nathan Elliott	Target Trek Racing Team	2h58'04
2	Jason Spencer	Charter Mason / Drapac DT	s.t.
3	Jesse Kerrison	Budget Forklifts	s.t.
4	Rhys Gillett	African Wildlife Safaris	s.t.
5	Shaun McCarthy	Budget Forklifts	s.t.
6	Peter Milostic	Jayco Composite Team	s.t.
7	Dane Crawford	search2retain	s.t.
8	Tom Middleton	Team Orbea	s.t.
9	Joshua Cornish	St George Skoda HP Team	s.t.
10	Riley Maule	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	s.t.