baia wrote:

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

What an opening stage for the Tour of Tasmania: 17km up the Mt Wellington! The top-teams in the NRS will surely be today's favorites and it's definitely a great chance to create some crucial gaps!


And here we go with one of today's top-seeded teams: Budget Forklifts is one of the first teams to "enter" the ascent.. great climbers like O'Brien, Cupitt or Evans will garantue that this first BT is a time to beat here:

50'50 for the lead.


We don't have to wait too long to see the top-favorite: Huon-Genesys has a couple of great climbers at start, including Earle, Crawford, Haig or Sam Davis.. and they deliver:

49'59! Beating Budget by almost a minute, this is a huge performance.


Satalyst with former NRS-leader Semple and Brad Hall won't stand a chance to beat Huon, but they limit the loss on Budget:

+ 1'23" for the provisional 3rd place.


search2retain and NRS-leader Neil Van der Ploeg is next in line! They do have decent climbers like Britten or Bayly and they lead the team to a pretty good result:

+ 1'08" as new 3rd.. only 17 seconds lost on Budget, so VdP is in contention here!


Drapac, still looking for their stage-racers to finally compete with the NRS' best, struggles to stay in touch:

5th with 1'55" behind Huon.

Not as bad as former teammate and defending Tassie-champion Norris (Jayco, + 3.13), but it will be a tough challenge for Lapthorne or Sulzberger to repeat last year's success here.

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 Neil Van der Ploeg took out the Launceston Classic a few days ago -, leads over several climbs and will challenge race-leader Jai Crawford and his Huon-team!


3 riders broke clear early and lead by already 2'30" with still 100km remaining:

Carpenter (Euride), who will write a blog for us here,
Bowman (Target Trek) and
Shaw (Suzuki)


We're making a huge step late into the race - a short summary: the escapees were later joined by 3 more riders (including Rhys Gillett), but as soon as this rather strong group attacked, the peloton started chasing hard.

Eventually, Euride's Carpenter attacked the leading group and went solo, quickly establishing a minute's lead.

Now, with only 11km to go, Carpenter holds on to a 1'10"-advantage on the bunch, where Semple (Satalyst) and Cupitt (Budget) go on the attack!


And this was the start of the - maybe - crucial moves:

O'Brien (Budget) and Norris (Jayco) join the attack and due to the higher pace, solo-leader Carpenter's lead is down to 33" with 6km remaining..


Cupitt appears to be strongest of the attackers and 3km before finish, he overtakes solo-escapee Carpenter and fights hard to hold off the bunch.

He's already leading by 25" on group O'Brien and 40" on the 50-men-bunch, where all other favorites are.


And it's looking good for Cupitt, even though teammate O'Brien managed to catch up with only a few hundret metres to go!

Also Semple didn't give up and tries to join the sprint for today's line honours! The bunch, led by Huon-Genesys, reduced the gap to 24" in the meantime..


Cupitt holds off the two chasers! A nice win for him and Team Budget after yesterday's dominant win from Huon!

Semple proves that he's still capable of getting good results as 2nd, ahead of O'Brien. The bunch with race-leader Crawford finishes within same time though, but at least it's valuable bonus seconds for the trio.


Jai Crawford (Huon) defends his race-lead. Huon did it's job today.

Cupitt (+ 0.41) and O'Brien (+ 0.47) gain some of the lost time back and with still 6 stages left, nothing's decided by now!

valverde321 wrote:
I didn't know Earle signed for Sky! That is a pretty good signing for them. I feel like they are signing all of the talents though.

Huon probably would have liked a podium on the stage, but holding the GC was most important.

Tour of Tasmania (Day 3, Crit + Mountain, 92km)

The third day kicks off with a criterium in Westbury and will conclude with the queen stage: a 92km race from Hagley to Great Lake, with the final 20km going uphill! A tough day in the mountains of Tasmania!

STAGE 3 - WESTBURY CRITERIUM/


The crit - featuring a slight uphill finishing stretch - was expected to suit the more "punchier" type of riders like..

..yes, Neil Van der Ploeg! The NRS-leader proves that he's the most consistent stage-hunter these days! He takes out the stage easily, ahead of Hall (Satalyst) and Cupitt (Budget)! So yesterday's stage-winner Cupitt collects some more bonus seconds. A good sign for the queen stage?

STAGE 4 - HAGLEY TO GREAT LAKE/


Time for the second mountain stage and we can expect the GC to change today!

We're already entering the final 21km - it's going uphill from now on! A group of 5 riders attacks the bunch and catches up to the early 3-men-break:

Britten (search2)
Sulzberger (Drapac)
Agorir (Kenya)
Talbot (Kangaroos)
Taylor (GPM)

Some decent climbers, who all lost minutes in the TTT. Their mission is simple: keep the top-favorites in distance!


But of course that ain't easy and with now 16km remaining, both leading groups were pulled back. The attacking continues:

now it's Bayly (search2), who tries to escape. He's only + 1'08" as 16th in GC and therefore a real threat!

Also Agorir and Taylor try their luck with their second attempt..


Bayly definitely looks strong, but the top-favorites jumped behind quickly:

Bayly
Clark (Charter)
O'Brien (Budget) and
Earle (Huon)

build the new super-strong leading group with 13km to go! 20" behind Gillett (African) and Sulzberger (Drapac) try to hang on, the bunch with race-leader Crawford is down by 30"..


And just as the leading group struggled to grow the gap, Clark and O'Brien launch another attack, dropping Earle and Bayly!

9km to go and the new leading duo opens up a gap quickly:

E1 (2)/ Clark, O'Brien

E2 (2)/ Bayly, Earle at 0.25

E3 (1)/ Talbot at 0.41

E4 (30)/ with Crawford, Norris, Cupitt, Lapthorne at 0.58

So it ain't looking too good for race-leader Crawford. Huon will go for Earle, it seems.


But Earle and Bayly can't keep the pace of Clark/O'Brien, who grow their lead with every km!

Earle is also pulled back by the bigger chasing group (now 14 riders left), where he now tries to support Crawford with his teammates. It's all about limiting the losses, as O'Brien already leads by 1'30" with only 2km to go!


So it's not only about the stage-win, but also a great chance for O'Brien to take the race-lead, which he already does - virtually!

And here goes the sprint for the line honours: O'Brien kicks off with Clark trying to hang on..


But Mark O'Brien takes it! An incredible effort by both him and young gun Clark, who's definitely going to be one of the best climbers in Australia, if the continues like that.

And as a minute goes by, it's certain that we will see a new leader today.. the 14-men-chasing group with Earle, Crawford, Cupitt and Norris finishes 1'32" behind O'Brien! The Huon-squad (with 4 riders in this group) couldn't limit the losses..


O'Brien slips into the leader-shirt and how dominating he was today! He's leading the race by 53" on Crawford and 58" on Earle/Dyball/Davis!

Today's runner-up Clark also makes a huge jump onto 7th in GC, while being 1'46" in arrears though.

Bad news for Huon and our blog-followers: Jack Haig, still in contention for at least the NRS-podium, missed the crucial moves and lost 7 minutes in the peloton! As well as Neil Van der Ploeg, Semple and Britten.