North West Tour (Stage 5, Flat, 136km)

The final day of the North West Tour and it's a flat stage from Coonabarabran to Gunnedah.. it looks like an easy day for a mass-sprint, but there's a short climb very close to the finish. Will we see some sprinters fading or a puncheur attacking?

After yesterday's domination by Mark O'Brien and the Budget-team, it's unlikely we will see bigger changes in the GC though. Or will we see more crash-victims?


No success for the breakaways so far in the NWT.. today the break of the day consisted 8 riders, no real threat for the GC. Most notable names:

Trent Carman (Downer EDI)
Nicolas Wood (ProTeam DU) and
Benjamin Kipchumba (Team Kenya).


But again no luck for the escapees! 5km before finish, it's again Oz Cycling Development Team and GPM Data#3 leading the bunch to a sprint-finish!


And we're already entering the final corner, as the short climb didn't split the pack and also some pure sprinters survived:

like Brendan Johnston (Suzuki), who comes down the stretch as first, followed by
Luke Davison (Drapac)
Ben Grenda (Oz)
Jake Beckinsale (Huon) and
GC's 2nd Michael Cupitt (Budget, + 0.33)!


Johnston's still in the lead with the line approaching!

While Davison looks in trouble to catch up, Cupitt is now moving forward fast from the right side!


And he takes it! What a race for Budget-Forklifts this was! Michael Cupitt takes out another stage - the third in total - for the team!

Johnston 2nd, Huon's Beckinsale 3rd ahead of race-leader O'Brien and Davison.


Congrats to Mark O'Brien for defending the North West Tour-title in style! Cupitt 2nd with 23" in arrears, ahead of teammate Evans. A triple-win for Budget and Cupitt also wins the points-jersey.

Huon-Genesys had some bad luck with both Earle and Haig crashing, but at least Jai Crawford scores points as 4th.. Matt Clark (Charter) finishes 5th in his first race this year, proving he's one of the better climbers in the field.

A strong Nathan Elliott (Target) scores valuable points as 6th, ahead of Sheppard (search2) and Drapac's duo Sulzberger/Lapthorne.. NRS-leader Adam Semple (14th) couldn't score any points here, same goes for Haig, Earle or the Van der Ploegs.

sutty68 wrote:
That is what you call a successful Tour for Budget Forklifts

O'Brien re-claims the top of the individual rankings and so does his team Budget in the team's classification! Thanks to a magnificant North West Tour for the whole team (3 stage-wins, 1-2-3 in GC) it's a well deserved change here..

O'Brien is also the first to crack the 200-points-mark this year, but there's no time to relax: the next race - Tour of Gippsland - will be the first Category 1-event in 2013 and there's quite more points awarded for a win there. The rather flat tour may suit a sprinter, but two hilly stages could also favor the stage-racers.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Pts
1	Mark O'Brien	Budget Forklifts	213
2	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	178
3	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon-Genesys	167
4	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon-Genesys	162
5	Paul Van der Ploeg	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	157
6	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon-Genesys	128
7	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain p/b health.com.au	115
8	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	103
9	Sam Rutherford	GPM Data#3	87
10	Eric Sheppard	search2retain p/b health.com.au	77
11	Harry Carpenter	Euride Racing	63
12	Ben Grenda	Oz Cycling Development Team	58
13	Darren Lapthorne	Drapac Cycling	50
	Marc Williams	Budget Forklifts	50
15	Bernard Sulzberger	Drapac Cycling	46
16	Alex Clements	Huon Salmon-Genesys	45
17	Karl Evans	Budget Forklifts	33
18	Jai Crawford	Huon Salmon-Genesys	27
19	James Hepburn	GPM Data#3	26
	Nathan Elliott	Target Trek Racing Team	26

TEAMS RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Pts
1	Budget Forklifts	443
2	Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers Pro Cycling Team	404
3	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	331
4	search2retain p/b health.com.au	281
5	Drapac Cycling	263
6	GPM Data#3	245
7	Jayco/Apollo VIS Men’s Road Team	179
8	Euride Racing	136
9	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	116
10	Oz Cycling Development Team	115
11	Target Trek Racing Team	75
12	Charter Mason / Drapac Development Team	65
13	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	55
14	Racing Kangaroos Cycling Development Program	38
15	Veneziano Blefari Cycling Team	30
16	Suzuki Bontrager	28
17	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	25
18	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	20
19	SUVelo Racing	15
20	Pro Team Downunder	10

miggi133 wrote:
Holy crap! How did earle manage to be in 6th place in the individual rankings so far??? Afterall, he has been the most unspectacular favourite in the NRS!

tsmoha wrote:


Well, he finished 2nd in both Mersey Valley and Adelaide Tour. But yes, except of Mersey, where took out the queen-stage, he rode rather unspectacular so far. Plus this bad luck here in NWT

miggi133 wrote:


I remember those good results, but they came more from background work... I mean Haig, Crawford and even Donnelly have been a lot more spectacular (well on a positive note) than Earle...

"Hey folks. I just came back from the very North West of Australia.. a truly disappointing trip it was. Well, okay, Jai (Crawford) did well as 4th, especially as he deserves those points. He worked pretty hard for the team so far this year.

But of course the two crashes by Nathan (Earle) and me.. man, just stupid bad luck! When Nathan crashed in third stage, we all felt sorry for him, but we knew we still had nice chances with myself, Jai and also Ben (Dyball) for the overall.."


I couldn't follow on the crucial climb.. a tough day!

"And then.. my first crash in the NRS - in the decisive stage! The fall also happened close to a climb, so my team decided to let Jai and Ben bring me back. On the one hand it feels good to be such a big part for this team, on the other hand I felt sorry for my mates.

Jai still had the power to finish 4th behind an incredible strong Budget-trio. And me? Well, I'm still young and I know I'm not the best pure climber in the field, but I know I could have done better than finishing 14th if I had avoid this crash... But I guess that's what we love at cycling, right? It's quite unpredictable with such things happening from time to time!

So, better luck next time! Our next event will be the Tour of Gippsland: 9 stages, mostly flat, but the two hilly stages can be crucial. And more points will be awarded thanks to Gippsland being a Category 1-event. So you better don't count us off, folks!"

GENERAL NEWS/ So, two things I would like to announce before we continue the racing. One smaller note (the first) and one major, which is not yet 100% decided though, as I'll wait for Cyanide to get their work done:

1) I always update the calendar in the first posts, but as I made some changes recently, I thought I would throw an update in here as well.. most notable changes are the addition of a Final for the Victorian Road Series (Tour of Bright) and two Aussie National events: Crit Championships and.. National Track Championships!

2) I'm considering a switch to PCM13 soonish! I will play the next event with PCM12 and will then run some tests with the new game, most probably after waiting for a next patch.. don't know if (or when) the switch will happen though.. Just an idea yet. I'm pretty satisfied with the database and PCM12-gameplay here, but would love to give it a go. What do you think? Also: any suggestions on how to improve this story?

indicates Victoria State Road Series-events
indicates NRS-events
indicates South Australian events
indicates other Australian/Oceanian events
o indicates "link available"
x indicates "not"

Date	Event	Preview	Winner
14.4.	Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort Classic	o	Earle
21.4.	Mersey Valley Tour	o	Semple
27.4	Tour of the South West	o	Wurf
2.5.	National Herald Sun Tour	o	P. vd Ploeg
9.5.	Tour of Toowoomba	o	O'Brien
11.5.	Phillip Island Grand Prix	x	D'Ambrosio
24.5.	Adelaide Tour	o	Donnelly
19.6.	Preston Mountain Classic	o	Earle
20.6.	North West Tour	o	O'Brien
31.7.	Tour of Gippsland	o	x
14.8.	Tour of the Great South Coast	x	x
24.8.	Sam Miranda Road Race	x	x
3.9.	Tour of the Murray River	x	x
20.9.	National Capital Tour	o	x
22.9.	Midlands Tour	x	x
25.9.	Launceston to New Norfolk	o	x
29.9.	Tour of Tasmania	x	x
12.10.	Melbourne to Warrnambool	x	x
13.10.	Shipwreck Coast	o	x
26.10.	Grafton to Inverell	x	x
30.10.	Bowden Elite Team Series (10 rds)	x	x
29.11.	Tour of Bright (Final)	x	x
20.12.	Australian Criterium Champs	x	x
30.01.	National Track Championships	x	x

National Capital Tour (Category 1)

A new race in the NRS-schedule and a short, but tough stage-race. Welcome to Canberra.

This penultimate (and last category 1) stage-race will be crucial as for the NRS-title and the 2013 National Capital Tour has shaped up well, with some great courses to race on!

A challenging ITT is followed by a long mountain-top-finish, even though the slopes ain't the toughest we've seen this year. Anyway, the climbers will try to gain valuable minutes/seconds here.. also the sprinters will have - most probably - two chances to shine.

View from Mt Ainslie..
Lake Burley Griffin..
Capital Hill and Capital Circle..

Blogging rider(s)/

Luke Davison (Drapac)