Stratford to Dargo (Mountain, 104km)

The penultimate event in the Victorian Road Series and it's a true highlight: the more and more popular Stratford to Dargo classic features a similar tough profile like the VRS opener up the Mt Baw Baw!


We're 21km before finish and will focus on the most important or notable moves now!

A breakaway group of 3 riders (Budget's Vink as the most prominent) leads by a minute and now 3 more riders attack the bunch:

Spencer (Charter), Dever (Target) and Gillett (African Wildlife)!


It's a dangerous group with at least two (Spencer, Gillett) favorites and also VRS-contenders, so more big guns joined this move! 10km to go, the final climb ahead, and 8 riders in the group of favorites:

Dever, Spencer, Gillett were joined by
Hucker (Drapac)
Dyball and Davis (Huon)
Williams and Prete (Budget)

So Huon and Budget may try to put some pressure on in-form Hucker with two riders each..


Hucker won't care and is the first in this group trying to solo away with still 9km remaining! The early escapees are caught and dropped now.

Dyball jumps behind Hucker quickly, while behind several riders are dropped (Williams, Davis) or struggle to follow (Gillett, Spencer)!


Good news for Budget's Prete (4th in the VRS) though, as he managed to catch up to the leading duo of top-favorites with now 4km to go!

Also Gillett (VRS 2nd) is only 15" in arrears, while Spencer (VRS 5th) won't hang on..


1.5km remaining and our blogger Gillett fights hard to narrow the small gap.. Hucker in the leading position now with the finish approaching..


It will be a thrilling and close finish between Hucker and Prete! Both - and now struggling Dyball, too - look totally exhausted and just try to lung in..


Hucker takes it and continues his streak! What a late season for Drapac's new rising star, simply awesome!

Prete 2nd for important points in the VRS, Dyball 3rd.. Gillett did well as 4th a few seconds later, Spencer completes the Top-5.. Anyway, the final VRS event (Tour of Bright) will mix the GC again, as more points will be rewarded.

miggi133 wrote:
...which also was before you started your 2nd NRS Season, so I was a little surprised to see Earle returning and O'Brien moving to Euride when in fact their transfers had been known already

Tour of Bright (Victorian Road Series' final event)

2014 will mark the 21st edition of the Tour of Bright, and what a year it will be! The Alpine Cycling Club will be going to extra lengths to commemorate the occasion.

Stage 1/The finish line is located at the top of Tawonga Gap. This stage has created a great atmosphere at the finish line, as everyone watches people arriving.

Stage 2/ The Individual Time Trial is where the rider tests themselves against the clock on an out and back course to Porepunkah.

Stage 3/ The route to Mt.Hotham is one of the most picturesque and challenging for any cyclist. A total of 55kms, the final 30 kms are all uphill, on an ascent to rival those seen in the French Alps.

The "Grand Finale" of the VRS and also one of the last events in Australia's cycling scene 2014! The race always attracted well known names from the NRS to take part and same goes for this year: VRS leading duo Gillett (African) and Prete (Budget) will do their best to score enough points against top-favorites like O'Brien (Euride), 2012-winner Clark (Drapac), 2013-winner Williams (Budget) or Spencer (Charter).





Marc Williams took out the 2013 edition for Budget: after winning the opening stage in style, he managed to defend his gap in both the ITT and the concluding mountain stage against some heavy competition! For a few moments, it looked like teammate Evans (who won the final stage) or Lapthorne (who will be at the start again) would catch him in the GC, but he fought hard to hold on!

Tour of Bright (Stage 1, Hilly, 90km)

The Tour of Bright kicks off with a tough stage, finishing on Tawonga Gap: a 6km climb, featuring 7% slopes in average.

So it's a first chance to create crucial gaps! Williams (Budget) took out this stage by almost a minute on riders Lapthorne (Drapac) last year, both will try to repeat such a result against climbers like O'Brien (Euride) or Clark (Drapac)!


Both Budget (Kauffmann) and Huon (Davis) managed to get a rider in a mid-race breakaway attempt, but the gap ain't too big with now 25km remaining..


This escaping group was caught once the bunch entered the final climb up the Tawonga Gap, but Davis gives it another go with 4.5km to go! He's a decent climber, so ain't chanceless for the GC here.


It's an entertaining race now as several riders followed Davis a few moments later:

Gillett (VRS-leader) was the first to catch up to Davis, but with now 2.5km to go many other top-favorites did the same. 12 riders in the new leading group, including

O'Brien (Euride)
Williams (Budget)
Lapthorne, Clark (Drapac)
Elliott (Target) and
Semple (Satalyst)!

So bad news for the other VRS-leader Prete (Budget), who's 45" in arrears by now!


The riders in this group keep shadowing each other and we see no more serious attack until the final km:

and here goes O'Brien with a late move, Johnson (Champion System) and Clark try to follow, as well as others..


But Mark O'Brien holds on to a 10"-gap to take out the opening stage here! The top-favorite, who's still disappointed by losing out on the NRS 2nd place in Grafton, proves that he's here to win!

Johnson and 2012's winner Matt Clark complete the podium, leading a group of 12 riders including Williams, Gillett or Lapthorne.

Prete eventually lost 1'01" today and has to fight hard in the two remaining stages now, especially as co-leader Gillett did well today.

Tour of Bright (Stage 2, ITT, 15km)

Second day here in Bright and it's a rather short and easy timetrial. But thanks to yetersday's stage producing rather less gaps this time, any seconds will be valuable!


Alex Morgan (Jayco) will be one of the top-favorites for today, but is not expected to be a GC-contender anymore.. anyway, he delivers:

new BT - 21'19", beating last year's TT-winner Kerby (Budget) by 9 seconds!


Kiwi Sam Horgan (Budget) is yet another favorite and maybe even aiming for the GC if he crushes the competition today:

new 2nd - 4" behind Morgan! Not bad, but no dominance either.


Next Kiwi, next favorite: Joe Cooper (Huon)! Rated as the very best TTist in the NRS, he's expected to do well..

..and he does! 21'13" for the win! 6" on Morgan, 10" on Horgan. Congrats!


Mark O'Brien (40" behind Cooper) defends his race-lead tough! But we've seen some changes in the GC thanks to a less selective stage yesterday:

Williams was the best of the favorites (22" behind Cooper) and puts some pressure on O'Brien now, being only 2" in arrears as new 2nd!

Also VRS-leader Gillett did very well to jump onto 3rd, while top-climber Clark lost some seconds and needs to fight back tomorrow. Same goes for last year's runner-up Lapthorne.

Tour of Bright (Stage 3, Mountain, 55km)

Final stage of the Tour of Bright - and it's simply short but tough! 55km in total, with about 30km ascending roads up the Mt Hotham!

Race-leader O'Brien and defending Bright-champion Williams (+ 0.02) are likely to battle this out, but also other strong climbers ain't too far behind in a close GC!


We're already into the final 20km and with a group of 3 escapees leading by a minute, we already see a rather early and interesting move:

O'Brien, Clark and Davis attacked the bunch, establishing a decent gap quickly! So O'Brien puts pressure on GC's 2nd Williams that way, accompanied by two strong climbers as well!


The group catches up to the last two remaining escapees soon (13km to go) and a group of more GC-contenders (22 riders) is already 1'45" in arrears!

Of course it's still a long way up. O'Brien did well to leave Williams behind by now. Clark (GC + 0.26) may be the biggest danger for him now..


And finally some action in the group behind! 5km to go, the gap has already reached two minutes and it's time to attack:

Williams (GC's 2nd)
Gillett (3rd and VRS-leader) as well as
Elliott (VRS-contender) and a few others

attack the chasing group and try to at least narrow the gap to the leading three! In between is Spencer (Charter), who also aims for the VRS-title!


But there's no chance to close the gap to the leading trio, which already enters the final 2km! So also the GC-win will be decided here.. so far, O'Brien looks in total control though!


And with the finish approaching, we won't see a gap between Clark and O'Brien, who go for a thrilling sprint to the line!


O'Brien takes it! His second stage-win and of course the overall win of the Tour of Bright 2014! Clark will gain valuable minutes on the better placed GC-riders as a strong 2nd today.

Huon's Davis did well as 3rd, losing 16" eventually.. Spencer already two minutes behind as 4th..


VRS-leader Gillett fights hard to at least defend his Top-5 in GC.. he crosses the line as 7th though, 3'54" behind O'Brien!

And it's a 6th place for Gillett in the final GC, with Williams taking 5th in the end.. the final rankings in the VRS will be revealed soon: O'Brien definitely did his best to also take the VRS-title by winning two stages and the GC. Will Gillett's efforts be enough to defend his lead? Co-leader Prete (17th) couldn't score any points this time.

O'BRIEN CLAIMS VICTORIAN ROAD SERIES TITLE

Mark O'Brien (Euride) is the crowned VRS champion 2014! In a ridicously close decision between him, Rhys Gillett (African Wildlife) and Jason Spencer (Charter), the premium climber managed to win his first series title in the past few years!

O'Brien had 4 racedays in the VRS event, of which he won 3 (Mt Baw Baw classics and two stages in Bright), so obviously he did the best out of his few days spent in the series. Some kind of redemption for his tough luck in the NRS, where he's now at three consecutive podium spots in the final rankings.

Really bad luck for our blogger Gillett, who was aiming for the VRS title and missed it for the second time in a row. And how close this time! He scored on regular base in the events, but couldn't win a single event.. he already said that he will give it another try next year though!

Rk	Name	Team	Total
1	Mark O'Brien	Euride Racing	46
2	Rhys Gillett	African Wildlife Safaris	45
3	Jason Spencer	Charter Mason / Drapac	41
4	Joshua Prete	Budget Forklifts	35
	Matthew Clark	Drapac Cycling	35
6	Samuel Davis	Huon Salmon - Genesys	31
7	Sam Crome	Charter Mason / Drapac DT	30
8	Nathan Elliott	Target Trek Racing Team	29
9	Ben Dyball	Huon Salmon - Genesys	16
10	Marc Williams	Budget Forklifts	15
	Andrew Stephan	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	15
	Robbie Hucker	Drapac Cycling	15
	Shaun McCarthy	Budget Forklifts	15
	Peter Milostic	Jayco Composite Team	15
	Nicholas Katsonis	Charter Mason / Drapac	15

TheManxMissile wrote:
It's a positive season for O'Brien really. He missed out in the NRS, but second was good. And then he really made it work in the VRS for a good win.
Sad for Gillett though who i think should have taken the title. He has to be favorite for next season though and i hope he can pull it off.
And good pics etc