Tour of Toowoomba (Stage 3, TTT, 27km)

The 3rd stage and TTT around Greenmount will surely mix the GC and be crucial in terms of the overall winner. Given that some teams are much stronger against the clock, it will be interesting to see, who will take this chance today.


Jayco/Apollo - Lachlan Norris (GC + 0.49)

Jayco has two of the stronger timetrialers with Finning and Jamieson, a promising team. The goal is to bring Norris in position to fight for the GC. And they deliver..

First notable BT: 39'19".


Euride Racing - Will Clarke (GC + 1.27)

Just like Jayco, Euride will hope for their strong TTlers Carpenter/Scotson to pull GC-hope and former NRS-winner Will Clarke to the line. They do well, but can't beat Jayco..

Finish: + 0.13


Huon Genesys - Jack Haig (GC + 0.19) and Nathan Earle (GC + 0.49)

Both Haig and Earle definitely aim the overall win, and it could be young gun Haig to take the leader's role, as Earle struggled yesterday. Maybe the strongest TTT-squad and therefore..

..new BT: 38'56"!


Budget Forklifts - Michael Cupitt (race-leader) and Mark O'Brien (GC + 0.13)

Another promising duo in Cupitt and O'Brien, who took the honours here last season. As Genesys set the new BT, Cupitt needs to defend his 19-seconds lead over Haig now.. a tough challenge, and close one..

Finish: + 0.19!


Satalyst Giant - Adam Semple (GC's 2nd, + 0.00) and Bradley Hall (GC + 0.19)

Semple will try to repeat his Mersey Valley-victory and needs his team to perform today. And even though Satalyst wasn't expected to compete with Genesys, the team fights hard to limit the damage..

Finish: + 0.27.


search2retain - Neil Van der Ploeg (GC's 3rd, + 0.00)

Like Satalyst, this team only wants to keep their GC-hopes in touch with the best TTT-squads. But they struggle to do so..

Finish: + 0.50.


Drapac Cycling - Bernd Sulzberger, John Walker and Darren Lapthorne (GC + 0.19)

Drapac couldn't compete with the NRS's best so far, needing a great result in Toowoomba for sure. They do have three riders in decent position and prove that they stand a chance..

Finish: + 0.27.


And as the day is over, we see how close today's battle for GC was: Jack Haig takes the race-lead from Cupitt, with the same time thanks to better stage-finishes!

Semple is still in the mix with only 9 seconds behind, so is O'Brien with 13 seconds. Also GPM did well and Rutherford could repeat his good results from Herald Sun Tour.

Thanks to this TTT being rather close in terms of the gaps, we still have two thrilling days remaining: two stages rated as flat ones, but both with some tricky uphill-finishes.

Tour of Toowoomba (Stage 4, Flat, 110km)

Two flat stages will conclude the Tour of Toowoomba, but both this 4th stage to Glenvale and the final criterium in Toowoomba ain't as easy as 'flat' could mean.

With several short climbs and an uphill-finish on Glenvale Criterium Circuit, today's profile may suit a puncheur more than a pure sprinter. An interesting question..


6 riders broke clear early and were allowed to establish a 5-minute gap with more than 75km to go:

Rudolph (Drapac), Holmes (New Zealand), Donati (Downer EDI), Harper (Veneziano), Dickeson (Champion Composite) and Butler (Target).

Malcolm Rudolph is both the most prominent and the most dangerous in this break (GC's 30th, + 2.23).


And he might have been the reason for the peloton to chase hard with the final quarter of the race approaching:

Huon-Genesys and wildcard-team Austal-Subway cut down the gap to 2'00" with 25km remaining.


19km to go and Neil Van der Ploeg (search2) gives it a try, accompanied by Cameron Wurf (Austal)!

Van der Ploeg is definitely one of the favorites for today's stage and he seems to prefer a surprising attack. As 13th in GC (+ 0.31) he's a real threat.


And therefore someone to pull back quickly: both the early escapees and Van der Ploeg were caught by the bunch with 10km to go, just as the field entered Glenvale.

search2retain keeps showing it's colors, leading Van der Ploeg into the final 3km on Glenvale's criterium circuit!


Neil Van der Ploeg kicked early and Scott Law is right behind, entering the final ascending km!


But both struggle to keep their speed on this 5% slope!

With still 800 metres to go, the bunch closes up to the two, led by:

Mark O'Brien (Budget), Aaron Donnelly (Genesys), Brodie Talbot (Kangaroos), Thomas Hamilton (Jayco) and Steve Waite (African)!


And, yes, it ain't a day for the sprinters, but for the fast-finishing puncheurs:

Donnelly takes out stage 4 of Toowoomba, ahead of O'Brien and Darren Lapthorne (Drapac)! All three collect some valuable bonus secons, which makes O'Brien jump onto GC's 3rd (+ 0.007), Donnelly on 5th (+ 0.16) and Lapthorne on 6th (+ 0.24).

Jack Haig retains his leader-shirt, but the GC is still open. Today's stage proved that there's a reason why most of the best sprinters skipped this tour.

Tour of Toowoomba (Stage 5, Flat, 53km)

The final stage in Toowoomba features a tough and fast criterium, with a short climb that has to be raced 8 times.. yesterday's finish looked similar and the sprinters struggled to do anything good. So will this criterium even make for some changes in the close GC? Race-leader Jack Haig won't hope so..


8 riders in the break of the day wouldn't focus on the GC but on the stage-win of course. Most notable names were Carman (Downer), Tansley (Euride) and Nelson (African Wildlife).


It ain't looking bad for the escapees, who still hold on to a small lead with only 8km remaining.

Oz Cycling Development Team now chases hard, trying to give their sprinter Ben Grenda a chance to shine.


We're not yet talking about a bunch sprint though, as GC's 3rd Mark O'Brien (+ 0.07) attacks the pack on the penultimate climb!

Also Cameron Wurf (Austal) tries to follow, but O'Brien quickly got a 25"-gap, already catching up to the now suffering early breakaway.


With only 1.5km remaining, it's O'Brien leading the race solo, as the breakaway got reeled in by the field.

O'Brien <= 16" => Wurf <= 21" => Peloton


Can O'Brien really fool the other favorites today? He's still holding on to a decent gap with the finish-line approaching!

Behind it's the bunch kicking off the sprint, with yesterday's winner Donnelly (Genesys) closing up to a suffering Wurf!


Mark O'Brien continues to deliver here in Toowoomba, taking out the final stage in style! There's definitely a gap, and he was only 7 seconds behind in GC..


Ben Grenda (Oz) sprints for 2nd, proving that the sprinters would have had a chance for the win here. A strong Brodie Talbot (Kangaroos) takes the 3rd.

But more important: O'Brien finished 11" ahead of the bunch! What a move. He takes the GC-lead on final day and finally wins a stage-race in 2013, repeating his last year's success here in Toowoomba.


Mark O'Brien (Budget) celebrates his overall win.




James Hepburn (GPM) takes out both KoM- and points-shirts.


Jack Haig (Genesys) finishes 2nd overall as best young rider.

The second Category 2-event of the year could have shown us the direction of this season's favorites. Mark O'Brien finally could repeat one of last year's victories and also took the NRS-lead, thanks to some great stage-finishes, that gave him the crucial bonus seconds.. While Semple and Haig once again delivered, Nathan Earle couldn't score a single point in Toowoomba.. the Van der Ploegs also struggled to score points this time, but both keep in touch with O'Brien.

The next race in Adelaide features a TTT and two rather flat stages, so expect the top-teams to be on top again. Also the top-sprinters may finally get their honours.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Pts
1	Mark O'Brien	Budget Forklifts	151
2	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	145
3	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon-Genesys	117
4	Paul Van der Ploeg	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	101
5	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain p/b health.com.au	100
6	Sam Rutherford	GPM Data#3	87
7	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon-Genesys	82
8	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon-Genesys	68
9	Eric Sheppard	search2retain p/b health.com.au	60
10	Harry Carpenter	Euride Racing	52
11	Marc Williams	Budget Forklifts	50
	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	50
13	Darren Lapthorne	Drapac Cycling	40
14	Bernard Sulzberger	Drapac Cycling	33
15	Bradley Hall	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	25
16	James Hepburn	GPM Data#3	21
17	Lachlan Norris	Jayco/Apollo VIS Men’s Road Team	20
18	Cameron Bayly	search2retain p/b health.com.au	15
	Jake Sutherland	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	15
20	Josh Taylor	GPM Data#3	13

TEAMS RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Pts
1	Budget Forklifts	283
2	Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers Pro Cycling Team	245
3	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	236
4	search2retain p/b health.com.au	218
5	Drapac Cycling	189
6	GPM Data#3	142
7	Euride Racing	96
8	Jayco/Apollo VIS Men’s Road Team	94
9	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	71
10	Target Trek Racing Team	45
	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	45
12	Racing Kangaroos Cycling Development Program	21
13	Oz Cycling Development Team	20
	Veneziano Blefari Cycling Team	20
15	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	15
	SUVelo Racing	15
	Suzuki Bontrager	15
	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	15

sutty68 wrote:
Budget Forklifts are top of both Individual and Team Rankings, but how long will it last

tsmoha wrote:


That's the question next race will be another Victorian Road Series-event, will only post a short review though.. It may take some days for the next NRS-races being posted, especially as i need to create one of those next first stay tuned, there's always some stuff happening in the meantime!

"Hey folks. What a race this was. Just came back from our trip to Toowoomba and you may have noticed how things went there.

I was so close to winning the tour, that it's kinda hard to say that I'm happy with my first NRS-podium. Of course it's great to finish 2nd behind such a beast like Mark O'Brien, but his move in the final stage.. we really should have been able to avoid such a thing happening.."


Wearing the leader-shirt was a great experience!

"So in the end, I definitely can't complain.. I managed to keep my good GC-position from the very first stage on and we knew whe could rock the TTT to claim the overall.. also Aaron (Donnelly) scored some nice points for our team, winning stage 4 and also entering the Top-10."


The young rider-honours as 2nd overall ain't that bad at all, right?

"Unfortunately Nathan (Earle) struggled to score any points. I feel sorry for my mate, he had a great start into the season, but ain't feeling that good at the moment.. But don't count him off, guys! I promise he will be back for winning, the North Western Tour suits him well.. Our next race - the Adelaide Tour - will also be another good chance, as the opening TTT should be crucial for the overall. So Genesys keeps rocking, hopefully!"

Hey guys. You may remember that I'm aiming for the overall win of the Victorian Road Series and so far I scored some valuable points, including a stage-win in the Tour of the South West. But yesterday I couldn't expect anything, as the flat classic should have been one for the sprinters.


My teammate Jeremy Cameron felt good and gave it a try with 17km to go. A breakaway of three riders was still leading the race by a small margin, so Jeremy hoped for his move to play out well.


But just as all other attacks, his move was empty-handed. The race came down to a bunch-sprint! Another mate of mine had a good position under the kite: Steven Waite! Also Boon Yeo wasn't too far behind!


And wow, Steven looked so strong! With the line approaching, he sprinted into podium-position, with Nicolas Sanderson (Melbourne) and Nicholas D'Ambrosio (Target) in the lead..


D'Ambrosio took out the race with an impressive finish! Congrats, man. Sanderson 2nd and unfortunately Steven dropped onto 5th in the end.. still a great result for the good old man Young gun Boon scored two points as 9th!

Final Results/

1	Nicholas D'Ambrosio	Target Trek Racing Team	1h43'36
2	Nicolas Sanderson	Melbourne Unibicycles	s.t.
3	Reuben Donati	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Ben Carman	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Steven Waite	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Chris Jory	GPM Data#3	s.t.
7	Gordon McCauley	Drapac Cycling	s.t.
8	Vaughan Bowman	Target Trek Racing Team	s.t.
9	Boon Yeo	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Callum O'Sullivan	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	s.t.