Australian based Team Budget Forklift's professional Sam Horgan (Benchmark Homes) has claimed the overall victory in New Zealand's Calder Stewart Elite Series 2015. With two more of his original teammates from Budget (Daniel Barry as 2nd, Michael Vink as tied 4th) finishing inside the Top-5 as well, it has been a pretty succesfull experience for this Aussie team, which did not win a title in it's home country's National Road Series this year.
After Daniel Barry (TotalPOS) took out the first two of six rounds, Horgan entered the Series with a bang: winning the next two rounds with two strong rides, the classic specialist added another valuable 3rd place in the 'Tasman Classic'. This 70pts eventually would be enough to win the individual's rankings, even though he missed out on further points in the concluding 'Hell of South'.
Neither Barry nor Fraser Hewett (Breads of Europe) did score in this final cobbled race, so Horgan remained the Series-leader afterall. Brad Evans (Calder Stewart) and Matthew Zenovich (H&J's Outdoors) were the other two winners in the final two rounds.
In the team's competition, Scotty Browns Vision took the overall win thanks to their great depth of strong riders like Michael Vink, Keagan Girdlestone, Jason Allen, Marc Ryan and also Hayden Roulston, who took part in the 'Hell of South'. TotalPOS Cycling led the rankings in the early rounds, but fell behind Scotty Browns in the last few events.
Following on from a very successful second season in 2014, The Victorian Road Series returns in 2015, with a few subtle changes, all aimed at maintaining the status of the VRS as the premier state-based road series in Australia.
The schedule has been cut down to four of the most prestigious events, with the concluding Tour of Bright as the only stage-race.. the famous Mt Baw Baw Mountain Classic will kick off the VRS and we can expect some well known faces from the NRS to show up: defending champion Mark O'Brien (now riding for Avanti) won't take part though. Time for a new name on the honour roll then!
Rhys Gillett (African Wildlife Safaris) has been aiming for the VRS-crown the past two years and missed it by just one point last year. Our former blogger will again go and try to win the title. Biggest contenders should be also Karl Evans or Brodie Talbot (Budget Forklifts), Brendan Canty (search2retain) and Nicholas Katsounis (Charter Mason). Also Robbie Hucker (Drapac) and Matthew Clark (Avanti) did confirm, that they will ride the Tour of Bright as free riders.
For each round, points are rewarded as follows:
Place
GC/Classics
Stages in Tour
1st
15
5
2nd
12
4
3rd
10
3
4th
8
2
5th
6
1
6th
5
7th
4
8th
3
9th
2
10th
1
Round 1 - Mt Baw Baw Classic (Mountain, 101km) Round 2 - Sam Miranda Road Race (Hill, 101km) Round 3 - Stratford to Dargo (Mountain, 103km) Round 4 - Tour of Bright (Hill, ITT, Mountain)
O'Brien on his way to win both the Tour of Bright and VRS 2014..
Thanks, sutty Will keep it short this time: the first three one day races in this first recap, and then the concluding Tour of Bright as a single recap.
Victorian Road Series Rounds 1-2-3
KATSONIS TAKES OUT BAW BAW - CANTY TIES LEAD IN DARGO!
Nicholas Katsonis (Charter Mason) and Brendan Canty (search2retain) are the tied leaders in the Victorian Road Series with just the Tour of Bright to come. Both scored one prestigious victory and added valuable points to lead the Series by just one point on Karl Evans (Budget), who finished as runner up in the two mountain classics!
The tough Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort Classic was taken by Katsonis, who was part of a 8-men-group of favorites attacking the bunch about 9km before the finish. A brutal climb would then see Katsonis dropping Karl Evans at the 5km mark, holding on to a minor gap til the line. Canty finished a minute later as third, while our former blogger and last year's 2nd in the VRS - Rhys Gillett (African Wildlife) - came in as fourth.
The partly hilly, partly flat Sam Miranda Road Race almost went to a 10-men-breakaway, which did well to hold off the struggling peloton til the finish. Anyway, a strong going Oliver Kent-Spark (search2) managed to bridge across this group in the final 10km and launch his winning move with just 2km remaining. No other rider could join the leading group and so a few sprinters like Dane Crawford (Paradice) and Shannon Johnson (Charter Mason) sprinted to some nice results out of the break of the day.
Another tough mountain classic - Stratford to Dargo - would then see the peloton in control again: the big guns (Canty, Evans, Katsonis, Gillett) set the agenda late into the race, attacking about 7km before finish. Opposing to Baw Baw, Brendan Canty appeared to be the strongest and rode to an impressive victory eventually. It's his favorite race, since he made himself a promising name here back in 2013, when he took a surprising victory in his first road race ever!
Katsonis attacking the leading group on Mt Baw Baw..
..holding off solo chasing Evans on brutal slopes..
..to score a prestigious victory on one of Australia's toughest climbs!
Kent-Spark launching his winning move in the Sam Miranda RR..
Finishing a few seconds ahead of the break of the day!
Rowan Dever and Brendan Canty kicking off the action in the third event!
Canty dropping a group with Evans, Katsonis and Dever..
..to win this race, which he took out as an amateur two years ago!
Avanti Racing is back in winning mode - sort of: Matthew Clark (racing for the Park Trent Team here) took out the season concluding Tour of Bright, beating tied VRS-leader Brendan Canty (search2) by half a minute! Our former blogger and title contending Rhys Gillett (African Wildlife) put up a strong performance to finish as 3rd in the final GC. Still too less to take the VRS-title..
Anyway, Gillett opened the race with a bang, when he took out the first stage up the Tawonga Gap! A great effort, holding off an elite group with Clark, Canty and Karl Evans by 17 seconds eventually. Tied VRS-leader Nicholas Katsonis hadn't his best day and was likely to loose the VRS already in this opener.
Team search2retain kept collecting VRS-wins when James Hepburn took out the short timetrial on second day, beating Morgan (Jayco VIS) by a small margin. Gillett held on to the GC-lead by 12 seconds on Adam Semple (Jayco Composite Team), who gave a comeback after being a serious NRS-contender back in 2013!
It was not meant for Gillett to defend yellow til the end though: an impressive solo-effort by Clark saw him grab the final GC! A huge fight between Canty and Gillett was eventually won by the first, who dropped Gillett on the final 2kms to finish second in the GC - this will be enough for him to win the Victorian Road Series 2015!
Dever, Semple and Evans kicking off the action on Tawonga Gap..
..where Rhys Gillett took line honours to attack the VRS-title again!
Canty/Gillett with a thrilling battle up the challenging Mt Hotham..
..where Matthew Clark rode to a dominating victory!
Gillett couldn't follow Canty, but held off Evans for a notable result..
Thanks, sutty. No sign of things to come though, since the 2015 season is official over now
Victorian Road Series Recap
BRENDAN CANTY CROWNED VRS CHAMPION 2015!
Our former blogger Rhys Gillett (African Wildlife Safaris) has to settle for yet another runner up, as he finishes off the Victorian Road Series 2015 as the second strongest rider. Up and coming climber Brendan Canty (search2retain) wins the Series by 9 points, while Nicholas Katsonis (Charter Mason) dropped down from 1st to 4th in the series concluding Tour of Bright.
Katsonis will be happy enough to write his name in the history books of the challenging Mt Baw Baw classic, while Canty rode to his second victory in the brutal Stratford to Dargo classic. A race that will always be in his heart, since he kicked off his cycling career with a victory there back in 2013.
Avanti's Matthew Clark did only race the Tour of Bright and did it in style: his victory there was the only way Avanti Racing could have finished off this Australian Cycling Season 2015!
