Toowoomba & Adelaide Tour Highlights

Cupitt (Budget) and Kent-Spark (search2) attacking on Toowoomba's first day..

..followed by NRS-leader Roe (Budget), who took 2nd that stage!

Martin (Tasmania), Davies (Skoda) and Taylor (GPM) attacking on second day..

..where Haig (Avanti) rode to an impressive solo-victory!

Team Budget Forklifts in Toowoomba's TTT-event..

Allenby (SUVelo), Symonds (Bianchi), Aitkin (Seight) and Zac Shaw (Suzuki)

Haig (Avanti) leading the bunch on Adelaide's opening stage..

Piper (Paradice) attacking an escaping group in Adelaide's criterium..

Elliott (African) and Gerald Evans (Tasmania) leading a breakaway..

Roe keeps the NRS-lead despite crashing out of the GC-contention in Adelaide, but O'Brien scored 12 points to jump onto third in the individual's rankings. Anderson with a huge race to make his first impact this year, while also the first sprinters (Jones, Freienstein and Edmondson) pop up in the Top-10.

As for the teams, Drapac was the highest scoring (20pts) in Adelaide, with Avanti (18) going for an important step to keep Budget (9) on distance. As said before, the Tasmanian based team will be hard to catch, but anything can still happen here.

#INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Thimothy Roe	Budget Forklifts	38
2	Joe Cooper	Avanti Racing Team	31
3	Mark O'Brien	Avanti Racing Team	28
4	Neil Van der Ploeg	Avanti Racing Team	26
5	Travis Meyer	Drapac Cycling	21
6	Jack Anderson	Drapac Cycling	17
7	Jack Haig	Avanti Racing Team	14
8	Michael Vink	Budget Forklifts	12
	Brenton Jones	Avanti Racing Team	12
10	Raphael Freienstein	Charter Mason	10
	Alexander Edmondson	Euride Racing	10
12	Daniel Fitter	Charter Mason Giant Racing	9
13	Will Clarke	Drapac Cycling	8
	Daniel Barry	Budget Forklifts	8
15	Jonathan Cantwell	Drapac Cycling	7
	Jason Spencer	African Wildlife Safaris	7
	Rhys Gillett	African Wildlife Safaris	7

#TEAM'S RANKINGS

Rk	Team	Points
1	Avanti Racing Team	76
2	Budget Forklifts	52
3	Drapac Cycling	46
4	Charter Mason Giant Racing	33
5	African Wildlife Safaris	27
6	search2retain	18
7	Data#3 Symantec RT	17
8	Jayco VIS - Apollo	9
9	Euride Racing	8
	SUVelo Racing	8
11	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	7
12	St George Skoda HP Team	5
	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	5
	GPM Data#3	5
15	Pure Tasmania & Polygon Cycling	3
	Seight Test Team	3
	Suzuki Bontrager	3
	Paradice Investment	3

North West Tour Preview

Regional New South Wales will get a taste of international cycling when the Subaru Cycling Australia National Road Series (NRS) hits town with the Santos North West Tour from June 19 – 22.

The fourth edition of the five-stage Tour will take in the rural towns of Narrabri, Coonabarabran and Gunnedah.

The queen stage features a mountaintop finish and is therefore one of the toughest stages in the NRS.. so the climbers, like two-time winner Mark O'Brien, will aim for the victory here.






Stuart Smith rode to an impressive GC-victory thanks to a breakaway effort on third day and a stunning solo-win in the queen stage the day after. This two consecutive stage-wins brought him and the team a huge win ahead of some premium climbers like O'Brien, Dyball, Hucker and Cupitt. Expect this two stages to be the key days once again!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_OBrien_zps4070731d.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Mark O'Brien (Avanti Racing)
Won this race back in 2012 and 2013 plus finishing as runner-up last year. Being one of the strongest climbers in the NRS, this is his great chance to attack the NRS-lead in Timmy Roe's abscence!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Haig_zps1b14a724.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jack Haig (Avanti Racing)
Avanti will once again have several threats for the GC though: Haig will take every chance he gets to score points (or wins) and this race will suit him with a short TT and a mountain stage as keys.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Smith_Stu_zpsbb4f9081.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Stuart Smith (search2retain)
Defending North West-winner and also one of the better climbers, Smith will certainly be someone to watch out for this year. Building a dangerous duo with upcoming climber Brendan Canty!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Williams_zpsc8f0f678.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Marc Williams (Budget Forklifts)
Interesting race for Budget in it's first appearance without Roe as the undisputed leader. Williams combines TT- and climbing skills very well, while also Cupitt (last year's 5th) will be a threat.

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Cooper_zps7f5c0602.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Joe Cooper (Avanti Racing)
Getting tired of Avanti? Well, then skip this comment: Cooper will not only aim for the prologue, but also the GC here. Like O'Brien, the Kiwi (2nd in the NRS at this point) targets the NRS-lead!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/15NRS_Girdlestone_zps8952e244.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Keagan Girdlestone (Charter Mason)
Girdlestone may be one of the more promising riders behind the three mentioned teams here. Charter Mason also lines up with Katsonis or Crome as possible GC-contenders. Watch out!

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_JSpencer_zps366b3227.jpg[/img-l][img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Portraits/NRS_Platzhalter_zps31ed228a.png[/img-l]Jason Spencer (African Wildlife)
A rather quiet season for the team so far, but Spencer was amongst the strongest in this race last year (7th in GC) and should be capable of going for a similar result this season. Some strong support, too.

TheManxMissile wrote:
Avanti will get one many on the podium at least. Hoping O'Brien can win this one to close Roe down for the title, and that Haig finishes second to extend Avanti's lead in the team competition.

North West Tour Recap

History almost repeated, but Jack Haig (Avanti) proved his strengths to win the overall GC quite comfortable ahead of last year's winner Stuart Smith (search2) and a surprisingly strong climbing Zac Shaw (Jayco/VIS)! Individual ranking's contenders Joe Cooper (4th) and Mark O'Brien (6th) added points for Avanti.

Joe Cooper would also take out the prologue through Narrabri ahead of teammates van der Ploeg and Giacoppo! And the Kiwi held on to this narrow GC-lead as Russell Gill (Euride) took the second stage ahead of Daniel Barry (Budget) and Giacoppo thanks to an outstanding sprint performance from way out the final km.

It was the third stage - with a tricky profile and crosswinds - that would again see Stu Smith attacking the GC and finishing the stage off as as 3rd behind James Rendall (African) and veteran Rhys Pollock (Charter), who slipped into yellow prior to the queen stage. Smith as the best climber out of this three and another good chance to for the GC-victory, entering the stage with more than 30 seconds on riders like Cooper, Haig or O'Brien.

It was not meant to be for him this year though, as Jack Haig crushed the competition on the steep climb up to Narrabri for a stunning solo-victory and yellow! Zac Shaw finished the day as 2nd with quite a gap on top-favorite O'Brien, who led a small group with Cooper, Canty, Smith and Williams cross the line. O'Brien went for a solo-effort prior to the summit climb, but was caught at the bottom, where Haig and Shaw then were the first to keep the attacks rolling.

The final flat but long stage to Gunnedah featured a short climb close to line, which could have been a chance for GC-riders to go for bonus seconds. But it was a strong Daniel Barry and Michael Cupitt completing a 1-2 for Budget to finish off the tour in style. No major changes in the GC on that day, so Haig defended his yellow easily.

Cooper's win completed a 1-2-3 for Avanti in the prologue!

Gill sprinting to a nice win on second day's criterium..

Rendall, Phollock and Smith dropped their breakaway companions..

..with Rendall taking stage three and Pollock the GC-lead!

O'Brien attacking 25km before finish on the queen stage..

..empty-handed: Haig/Shaw on the move 7km to the summit!

The chasing group with O'Brien/Cooper, Smith/Canty and Williams..

..had no chance to follow Jack Haig!

Barry and Cupitt going for a 1-2 on final stage!

Haig celebrating his GC-victory for another strong Avanti-showing!

OZrocker wrote:
It's probably too much to ask of VIS to put in another top 10 effort, so hopefully my main team get something done.