Tour of the Murray River (Days 3 & 4, three flat)

The last two days of the Murray River's sprint-festival! Current race-leader Scott Law (GPM) will try hard to defend his narrow lead: both him and Luke Davison (Drapac) took out two stages so far. Will they continue to shine like that?


STAGE 5 - ECHUCA TO BARMAH ROAD RACE/


One of the wildcard teams gave it a try late in this road race, once the earlier break attempts all had been reeled in:

Luke Knox (South Australia) went solo and with 16km to go, he maintained a 55"-lead, while already facing a chasing bunch behind him..


Once again no chance for a breakaway win, Knox fought hard, but was pulled back right in time..

..we're already close to the finish and it's a battle between the most consistent sprinters here:

Beckinsale (Huon), Van der Ploeg (search2), Davison (Drapac), Law (GPM) and also Palmer (Drapac) sprint to the line..


It's yet another close decision, but this time we've a new stage-winner: Jack Beckinsale lungs in for Huon's first victory here!

Van der Ploeg 2nd ahead of Davison! And thanks to Law (10th) failing to score bonus seconds, Davison takes the race-lead again. But only thanks to better stage-results!

STAGE 6 - NATHALIA TO COBRAM ROAD RACE/


Next flat stage, next bunch sprint! But we've also some first major splits this time, thanks to heavy crosswinds today! Only 36 riders remain in the first peloton, just as the sprint kicks off!

Well known names fighting for the win: Grenda (Oz), Van der Ploeg (search2) and Davison (Drapac) look dominant today, already establishing a small gap on other names like Beckinsale or Law..


And Grenda takes it! A great timing he had, even though Davison as 2nd looked way faster in the end! Van der Ploeg with another podium as 3rd.

Former race-leader Law (5th) loses more seconds on Davison, who now leads the race 4" on Law and 6" on third-placed Beckinsale! With only one crit left, those two would need a stage-win and Davison to miss bonus seconds to take out the whole tour!

Most notable sprinters being dropped today, losing more than 3 minutes:

Jesse Kerrison (Budget, GC's 13th)
Brendan Johnston (Suzuki, GC's 8th)
Jordan Kerby (Jayco)
Gordon McCauly (Drapac, GC's 6th)
Rico Rogers (search2, GC's 9th)

Bad luck for those, who could have scored some valuable points in this category 1-race!

STAGE 7 - YARRAWONGA CRITERIUM/


Final stage, final crit in Yarrawonga! And we've another bunch sprint, but it couldn't be more interesting than this:

Both GC's 2nd Law and 3rd Beckinsale dominate this sprint! And with race-leader Davison being several metres behind, it may become a thrilling battle for bonus seconds!


Jack Beckinsale did it! He takes out his second stage-win ahead of Law.. so both score the needed bonus seconds to overtake Davison in the GC..

..but as you may have noticed, the man in yellow defends his race-lead easily, as he sprints for today's 3rd and HIS needed bonus seconds..


Luke Davison (Drapac) defends his Murray River-title! He also takes out the points competition, thanks to two stage-wins and (except of the opening stage) consistent podium-finishes. Well deserved.

Beckinsale managed to jump on 2nd (two stage-wins) ahead of Law (also two stage wins), both with only 2" behind Davison. Those three really delivered here, well needed points for the NRS-rankings.

Grenda and Van der Ploeg complete the Top-5.. and Aaron Donnelly (Huon) scores some very valuable points as 7th here: with most of the stage-racers (like NRS-leader O'Brien, Earle or Haig) skipping this flat race, he did well to take advantage of it.

sutty68 wrote:
Davison was determined to win back to back titles and he got there in the end

The peloton chasing..


Breakaway..


Steven Waite (African) and Lachlan Ambrose (Venezia) escaping..


..Josh Lind (Suzuki) chasing with Daniel McConnell (South Australia)!


Race-leader Scott Law (GPM) kicking off a bunch sprint..


Ben Grenda (Oz) taking out a stage..


Caleb Jones and Law (GPM) launching the final sprint!

So, the sprinter-festival at the Murray River definitely mixed the rankings! Some may be quite surprised to see a new leader..

Luke Davison now is, where was at the end of the last season: at the top! A huge points haul for the sprinter in the Category 1-event made him climb onto 1st place, with Neil Van der Ploeg claiming 2nd.. it's well needed points though, as the next three races will probably be won by the puncheurs/stage-racers.

So, Budget's O'Brien lost his lead and also his team did: Huon-Genesys scored big time, thanks to Beckinsale performing so well. But it's still a very close one, as also Drapac scored many many points for the first time this season.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS/

Rk	Name	Team	Pts
1	Luke Davison	Drapac Cycling	413
2	Neil Van der Ploeg	search2retain p/b health.com.au	337
3	Mark O'Brien	Budget Forklifts	313
4	Scott Law	GPM Data#3	307
5	Nathan Earle	Huon Salmon-Genesys	295
6	Jack Haig	Huon Salmon-Genesys	277
7	Bradley Hall	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	270
8	Adam Semple	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	261
9	Aaron Donnelly	Huon Salmon-Genesys	236
10	Jack Beckinsale	Huon Salmon-Genesys	224
11	Karl Evans	Budget Forklifts	213
12	Ben Grenda	Oz Cycling Development Team	209
13	Paul Van der Ploeg	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	172
14	Michael Cupitt	Budget Forklifts	163
15	Matthew Clark	Charter Mason / Drapac	139
16	Sam Rutherford	GPM Data#3	114
17	Darren Lapthorne	Drapac Cycling	86
18	Harry Carpenter	Euride Racing	78
19	Eric Sheppard	search2retain p/b health.com.au	77
20	Cameron Bayly	search2retain p/b health.com.au	71

TEAMS RANKINGS/

Rk	Team	Pts
1	Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers Pro Cycling Team	918
2	Budget Forklifts	891
3	Drapac Cycling	751
4	GPM Data#3	718
5	Satalyst Giant Racing Team	684
6	search2retain p/b health.com.au	644
7	Oz Cycling Development Team	335
8	Euride Racing	326
9	African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team	246
10	Jayco/Apollo VIS Men’s Road Team	224
11	Pro Team Downunder	208
12	Bianchi Lotto Arbitrage	190
13	Charter Mason / Drapac Development Team	180
14	Target Trek Racing Team	125
15	Racing Kangaroos Cycling Development Program	83
16	Suzuki Bontrager	53
17	Veneziano Blefari Cycling Team	40
	Data#3 Cisco Racing Team	40
19	SUVelo Racing	35
20	Downer EDI Mining National Cycling Team	30

baia wrote:
Davison did great indeed but it seems unfair fight between him and Huon riders... i mean, Huon has not just one but 4 riders capable to bring more points, thing that Drapac doesn´t have it seems... ... but i might be wrong

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)