James Hepburn (GPM) in National Capital Tour's ITT..


Alex Morgan (Jayco) and his timetrial in Canberra..


Jack Haig (Huon) celebrates his dominating solo-victory!


A breakaway group with Canberra in the background..


The peloton in the Launceston to New Norfolk classic..


Drapac leading the chase down a descent..


Jack Anderson (Budget) leading a bunch of favorites..

Tour of Tasmania

The Caterpillar Underground Mining Tour of Tasmania will be held from October 2-7, consisting of eight stages over six days.

The 480.4km journey begins in the state’s capital, Hobart, on Tuesday, October 2, starting with a grand parade of riders from Constitution Dock to Cascade Brewery, and culminating with a Kermese in Devonport, which offers views of Bass Strait.

The two mountain-stages - including a tough TTT up the Mt Wellington - will be the tour's highlights and of course those are expected to be the crucial days.


+ 2 flat crits




Mark O'Brien took out the 2013 Tour of Tasmania in style, crushing the competition by almost two minutes on Huon's pure climber Crawford! Even though Huon kicked the tour of with an impressive mountain TTT, gaining 51 seconds on Budget and O'Brien, who then was going to take out the queen stage and fought his way back to the top here. Bad luck for Nathan Earle (crash in final stage) prevented local team Huon from taking the two remaining podium spots though.

Team Drapac in the opening TTT up Mt Wellington..

The queen stage and a group of GC-contenders chasing..

Team Budget leading the bunch towards a climb..

The tour concludes with a tough Kermesse in Devonport..

..where Nathan Earle crashed as GC's 3rd last year (dropping to 6th)!

Tour of Tasmania (Preview #2)

O'Brien (Euride), Haig (Huon), Evans (Budget), Clark (Drapac), Semple (Satalyst), Neil Van der Ploeg (search2)

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Cupitt_zpsc4e56da6.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Michael Cupitt (Budget Forklifts)
Key stats/ MO 72, HI 71
To give a better overview of the maybe crucial mountain-TTT, we will show the team's stats here.
MO-stats: 72-70-70-69-68-65-57

[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/ MO 72, HI 75
Earle so far dominated the races in Tasmania. His problem may be the team's climbing here though:
MO-stats: 73-72-64-62-60-58-55

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Anderson_zps7a324a36.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jack Anderson (Budget Forklifts)
Key stats/ MO 69, HI 74
Hard to say wether the mountain-stage or the hilly stages will be the key here. So Budget may go for Anderson:
MO-stats: 72-70-70-69-68-65-57

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Bayly_zps7babefc2.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Cameron Bayly (search2retain)
Key stats/ MO 70, HI 70
Bayly comes off a podium-finish in the National Capital Tour and should be amongst the best climbers here:
MO-stats: 71-70-70-67-64-61

[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/ MO 71, HI 71
Hucker climbed onto 5th in the NRS rankings thanks to another good result in the Capital Tour. Will he deliver?
MO-stats: 71-69-68-66-64-55-54

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Crawford_zpsb32504c2.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jai Crawford (Huon Salmon - Genesys)
Key stats/ MO 73, HI 68
Last year's 2nd here deserves to be mentioned. Being the best climber here, he may have a chance:
MO-stats: 73-72-64-62-60-58-55

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Clements_zps063236f6.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Alex Clements (Pure Tasmania)
Key stats/ MO 71, HI 68
The second local team beside Huon really hopes for a good GC-result. Clements hasn't a good season though:
MO-stats: 71-69-69-66-64-56-55

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Norris_zpsd23d82ed.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Lachlan Norris (Jayco - Honey Shotz)
Key stats/ MO 72, HI 71
Norris won this race two years ago, but struggled most recently after a very good start into the season:
MO-stats: 72-68-67-65-64-63-60

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Clarke_Will_zpsc4e785cf.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Will Clarke (Caterpillar Composite Team)
"Surprised to see me again? I'm here to bring me back in shape for the next season after a difficult I had with Euride Racing back in 2013 and a difficult injury earlier this season. Caterpillar gave me a chance that I want to take!"

Tour of Tasmania (Stage 1, TTT, 17km)

What an opening stage for the Tour of Tasmania: 17km up the Mt Wellington! It's definitely a great chance to create some crucial gaps - Huon crushed the competition by gaining more than 50 seconds on Budget last year! Which didn't prevent Budget's O'Brien from winning the race eventually though.


Former race-winner Lachlan Norris and his Jayco-team are one of the first teams, that may have a shot at a good result today. The team at least grabs the first notable BT:

51'55" for the provisional lead!


search2retain is next in line and they do have some decent climbers in their squad here (Bayly, Sheppard, Smith, Britten)! So they attack Jayco for the new time to beat.. and succeed:

new BT - 51'30"! Beating Jayco by 25 seconds!


Drapac's goal is to do better than last year, where they lost almost two minutes on Huon here.. and they look stronger with guys like Hucker and Sulzberger:

new 2nd, finishing with the same time as search2!


Huon Salmon crushed the competition a year ago, but definitely didn't send the best climbing-squad this year.. the goal is to bring NRS-contender Earle in a good position to go for a GC-victory.. but they struggle!

+ 1'04" on still leading search2retain and Drapac! That's everything but good..


The second Tasmanian team beside Huon is Pure Tasmania and they deliver here on "home turf"! Good news for GC-contender Alex Clements:

new BT! Beating search2 by 16 seconds!


The best is yet to come though! Budget Forklifts looks extraordinary strong on this though climb and it ain't surprising to see them grabbing the stage:

Best time! 50'35", beating Pure Tassie by 39 seconds for a comfortable win!

Marc Williams will be the first race-leader here and the maybe biggest news is Huon losing 1'59" on Budget in this opener! Of course anything is still possible, but Earle has to fight his way into the Top-10/5 now. Let's hope for an aggressive and thrilling race after this tough opening TTT!

Tour of Tasmania (Stage 2, Hill, 120km)

Second day in Tasmania and it's looking a bit easier now: no major climbs like yesterday's Mt Wellington, but it's a tricky route nevertheless.

The route, starting in New Norfolk - where Nathan Earle took out the Launceston Classic a few days ago -, leads over several climbs. We didn't see major splits in last year's edition, where Cupitt won the stage for Budget in a bunch sprint though.


We're already halfway through the race and the action is on with 4 riders trying to jump behind two early escapees:

Nelson (St George)
T. Carman (Downer EDI) lead by 1'40" on

Morley (Satalyst)
Taylor (GPM) and to "local heroes"
Cameron (Caterpillar)
Martin (Pure Tasmania)!

The peloton is still 3'10" in arrears by now, but started to chase in the meantime..


The stage features a steady up-and-down and makes for an interesting race with now 22km to go:

Earle (Huon) launches a rather early move, joined by Elliott (Target)! A somehow necessary move though, as we of course remember Earle losing already two minutes in yesterday's opening TTT!


No easy action for Earle to establish a gap though, but his move kicked off a bunch of attacks by possible GC-contenders!

13km remaining and with 5 escapees still 50" in the lead, we see another try by Earle:

Earle, Norris (Jayco), race-leader Williams (Budget) and Smith (search2) attack the bunch!


It looks like we will see a more action-packed second stage than last year, which is great news for all the spectators and followers. 6km to go and group Earle managed to catch up to the escaping group:

E1 (10)/ Earle, Williams, Norris, Elliott, Taylor, Smith, Carman, Martin, Cameron, Nelson

E2 (6)/ Hucker, Clements, Anderson, Gillett, Davies, Spencer at 1.11

P (62)/ with Cupitt, Bayly, Sheppard and Horgan at 2.27

So we actually may see a huge mix in the GC with the gaps being over a minute each! Will GC-favorites like Hucker or Anderson manage to fight back?


Not yet and the leading group already reaches the final km now! No more (succesful) attack in this group and so this 10 riders will battle for the line honours.

Norris, Smith and Earle at the front, while race-leader Williams in seventh position right now..


The sprint is on and it's the three in the leading positions fighting for the victory and bonus seconds:

Norris, Earle or Stu Smith?


Local hero Nathan Earle! The Tasmanian continues to collect victories on home turf and with only 10 riders finishing in the leading group today, he may gain valuable seconds/minutes back.

Norris and Smith on podium, race-leader Williams did well to hang on with Earle here! A second group with Hucker finishes 52" behind, a third with Anderson 1'15".. the bunch lost 1'53" and so some Budget-guys will drop out of the Top-10 already.


But most important news for Budget will be Marc Williams' performance today. Finishing in the leading group was quite important and he will of course remain in the lead.

Pure Tasmania's Martin did well to hang on with the top-favorites and climbs onto 2nd with Stu Smith, Nelson and Norris in the Top-5 by now.

Earle climbs onto 11th in the rankings with 1'49" on Williams. Other strong climbers like Clements (7th), Hucker (10th) or Cupitt (12th) still can hope for improving in the rankings, while search2retain's Bayly (+ 2.48) missed a chance today.