Shipwreck Coast Classic (flat classic, 117km)

The third to last race of the season and it's most probably the second to last chance for the sprinters to shine: a flat and rather short race, featuring parts of the iconic Great Ocean Road!

Kicking off in Warrnambool, where Aaron Donnelly (Huon) celebrated his biggest win only 24 hours ago, the classic provides beautiful views and maybe crucial crosswinds. Last year, Alex Wohler (Budget) managed to win here with late attacks!


The break of the day is built by 7 riders, who established a 3'20"-gap with still 80km to go:

Kaesler (Euride), Windsor (Budget) and Sheppard (search2) as the most notable names here.


Back in the peloton, teams like GPM (for last year's 3rd Scott Law) and Drapac (for 2nd Davison) take control of the pace halfway through the race. Crosswinds (40kmh) may lead to a tough day in the saddle..


32km remaining and we see another - quite interesting - breakaway attempt in the bunch:

Haig/Shaw (Huon), as well as Jason and Trevor Spencer (Charter) attack!

4 riders, 2 teams, 2 brothers and 1 NRS-podium-contender, who may hope for unexpected points!


It's an empty-handed attempt though, as the chasing bunch keeps pacing hard. Anyway, with 12km to go, the early escapees still hold on to a 40"-gap and we see another attempt:

Bradley Hall (Satalyst) goes solo! He already finished 3rd in yesterday's Melbourne to Warrnambool and may now aim for the win..


He caught up to the breakaway group 4km before finish, but couldn't drop those seven after that. And now as we're already entering the final km, the peloton finally managed to close the gap!

Early escapee Sheppard still in the lead though, but the sprinters ain't too far behind..


And those sprinters overtake the last remaining escapees easily! It's going to be a bunch-sprint-decision this year:

Davison (Drapac)
Law (GPM)
Beckinsale (Huon)
Jones (GPM) and
Grenda (Pure Tasmania) in the most promising positions..


Could we have asked for a better finish? Davison and Law are head-to-head with the finish line just a bike length ahead!

It's a thrilling decision, especially as those two already had a photo-finish for the runner-up spot in the 2013 edition here (with Davison grabbing the 2nd place)!


And that's as close as a photo can be! Anyone able to judge just by this picture? Davison or Law?


It took the race directors almost half an hour to finally announce who got it..

..Luke Davison! A very important victory for the top-favorite, who now still can hope to make the NRS-podium with still one flat classic left.

Law an unhappy 2nd ahead of Huon's Beckinsale! Grenda, Kerrison, Jones and Drapac's Palmer sprint for the remaining points-places in the Top-7. No luck for Hall (12th) today. Also Van der Ploeg (23rd) or Giacoppo (26th) couldn't do anything special, finishing 21" behind Davison in the peloton.

Goulburn to Sydney

In 2012, The Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic celebrated its 110th anniversary. After a short hiatus, 'The Goulburn' returned to the roads of the NSW Southern Highlands in 2005. Although the majority of the route descends the Great Dividing Range from the start in Goulburn, the race is played out on freeway and dead roads until it heads up for a short climb and a flat finish.

Since it's re-inception into the NRS calendar, the race has played out to everything from lone breakaways to bunch sprints and the slight uphill finish in Camden always promises to be one of the most exciting in the NRS. Top spectating spots include the summit of Bendooley Hill in Berrima, the roads of 'Old Razorback' and the fast finish in Camden.

Goulburn to Sydney (flat classic, 169km)

The penultimate race of the season and it's most probably the last chance for the sprinters to shine: a flat profile with some short climbs though.


5 riders managed to go clear early in the race, establishing a comfortable gap of 4 minutes with 125km remaining:

Simpson (Subway), Stevenson (Jayco), Dyball (Huon), Sheppard (search2) and Stephan (Data#3)!


So far it's business as usual: the peloton, led by Euride and GPM, looks in control of the gap and starts chasing halfway through the race..


And now for the ever-dangerous attacks in the second half of those flat classics:

Cupitt (Budget) tries to solo away from the bunch with still 39km remaining!


It's an empty-handed attempt, but that doesn't prevent Team Budget from trying to escape:

Kauffmann (Budget) is next in line to give it a go with now 22km to go!


Again no luck and a short-lived move.. but guess who's going for another attack?

Wohler (Budget)! The third Budget-rider tries to escape from the bunch! He catches up to the early escapees 7km before finish. Better luck this time?


It's a tough one, especially as both the bunch narrows the gap to only 15" and Stephan (Data#3) attacked once Wohler managed to close the gap!


But neither Stephan nor Wohler or the other remaining escapees wouldn't stand a chance today: the peloton reeled them in right in time!

Gill (Euride), Grenda (Tasmania), Johnston (Suzuki) and Kerby (Budget) lead the sprint into the final km, with top-favorites like Davison (Drapac) a bit too far behind maybe..


Gill holds on to his leading position and even got himself a nice gap with the finish line approaching!

Johnston and Grenda try to hang on, while Kerby now moves forward with an impressive speed! So Budget remains to be a real force here today..


But Russell Gill lungs in for his biggest win in his career! He hasn't done anything special so far in 2014 and so this win is quite a surprise, actually!

Law (GPM) and "The Warry"-winner Donnelly (Huon) had both great finishes to complete the podium ahead of Kerby and Johnston. Top-favorite and Shipwreck-winner Davison comes in 6th ahead of Grenda, who grabs the last point.


So there's one great news, but also some "bad" news for Euride Racing today:

Gill's victory is obviously the good, but as O'Brien (40th) - somehow expected - failed to score any points in the the three flat classics, he won't have a chance to claim the NRS title, which goes to Nathan Earle (who wasn't at the start here and may celebrate this news at home)!

This is it! Nathan Earle will be crowned as the new NRS champion! O'Brien couldn't score the needed two points in the flat classics, so Earle can celebrate his title campaign 2014! More news on this once the season is over.

O'Brien not only lost on his title-chance, but now also has some pressure for the final race of the season: both Hucker (who scored a very important 3rd place in the Warrnambool) and Haig could catch up or even overtake (well, Hucker can) the premium climber! All three will race the final event, which was won by Haig in 2013! Stay tuned for a special feature in the next preview.

After some bad luck for Team Budget, there's some good news though: the team scored just one point less than Drapac in the last three events, so they hold on to a 6-point-advantage for the runner-up spot behind dominating Huon! With only 7 points rewarded for winning the team's classification in a one day race, this looks good for Budget.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon - Genesys	63
2	Mark O'Brien	Euride Racing	54
3	Robbie Hucker	Drapac Cycling	51
4	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon - Genesys	47
5	Luke Davison	Drapac Cycling	45
6	Jack Anderson	Budget Forklifts	40
	Scott Law	GPM Data#3	40
8	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon - Genesys	36
9	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain	34
10	Anthony Giacoppo	Huon Salmon - Genesys	33
11	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	30
	Alex Wohler	Budget Forklifts	30
13	Stuart Smith	search2retain	28
14	William Walker	Drapac Cycling	26
15	Cameron Bayly	search2retain	23

TEAM RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Points
1	Huon Salmon - Genesys	183
2	Budget Forklifts	155
3	Drapac Cycling	149
4	Euride Racing	118
5	search2retain	101
6	GPM Data#3	82
7	Jayco - Honey Shotz	71
8	Satalyst Giant Racing	60
9	Target Trek Racing Team	50
10	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	40

Grafton to Inverell

The Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic is a 228km road race conducted on a point to point course between the towns of Grafton and Inverell in northern New South Wales. The 2013 event is the 54th edition of a race that has enjoyed a long and successful history.

The course has remained the same over the years with the exception of the last two events which have added a deviation off the Gwydir Highway through the township of Elsmore to include one more final climb before the finish in Inverell.

This has proved very successful and consolidated the reputation of the Grafton to Inverell as the toughest one day cycling event in Australia.






Jack Haig (Huon) celebrated his biggest win of the season here in Inverell: the 20 years old Victorian based talent not only took out the toughest race on the schedule, but also made the final NRS podium thanks to this victory.. in a thrilling race, a chasing group with riders like Semple (2nd), Cupitt (3rd), Van der Ploeg (4th) and O'Brien (5th) couldn't follow his powerful attack 10km before finish.. the new NRS-champion 2014 Earle suffered from an earlier attempt and finished 9th with 4 minutes in arrears.

The famous Gibraltar Range will feature the toughest climb..

Haig and a group of favorites attacking in the 2013 edition..

Haig and his winning move with less than 10km to go!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_OBrien_zpsd0ff84f7.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Mark O'Brien (Euride Racing)
Key stats/ MO 74, HI 72, STA 75
2nd in the NRS (54 points)
The pressure is on O'Brien, who already looked the certain runner-up behind Earle.. finished 5th here in 2013.

[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, STA 74
3rd in the NRS (51 points)
A podium-finish here plus O'Brien missing the points would make Hucker jump onto 2nd in the NRS! A huge season.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Haig_zps8d12cd78.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jack Haig (Huon Salmon - Genesys)
Key stats/ MO 70, HI 73, STA 72
4th in the NRS (47 points)
Needs at least a podium to claim podium. He did just the same last year, where he won the Grafton for 3rd in NRS!