The Herald Sun Tour kicks off with quite a tricky flat stage from Geelong to Ballarat: an uphill finishing stretch, that also used to be featured in the Australian Criterium Championships, will surely favor the punchy sprinters over the pure flat sprinters. Some heavy crosswinds - in addition to some hot temperatures - add some further challenges.
Haller as the best sprinter, who may - just like Von Hoff - hope to be competitive on the uphill finish. Kreder however should be considered the favorite for the stage, with other punchy sprinters like Bercz, Bole or maybe Anderson as also quite promising bets for this challenging final kilometre.
Kreder underlines his ambitiouns already at the first intermediate sprint, which he easily takes ahead of Salleh and Angarita! The peloton did not allow a first breakaway attempt to go clear until this sprint, so everything is still together with now 95km remaining:
Schultz, Konwa, Lecourt De Billot, Richardson and Partridge as those, who tried to break clear earlier on - empty handed, obviously.
With just 76km to go, the break of the day has finally formed, building a 3'45" quickly:
Eiking Partridge Afoa O'Connor
Also Schlegel and Lecourt De Billot tried to join those four, but they couldn't..
Partridge easily takes the only mountain sprint ahead of Eiking and Afoa - that's at least the polka dot secured for tomorrow!
Afoa outsprints Eiking and Partridge at today's second and last intermediate sprint 30km before finish - the escaping group leads by 1'50" on the pack at this point..
The winds are blowing at 35kmh now and the peloton is still pulling the strings hard in order to catch the break: with 18km left, the bunch is a minute in arrears. Teams like cycleYorkshire, VMP and Philips share the workload now and the peloton is quite stretched with the pace and crosswinds making for a tough race now.
Less than 10km to go now and while Partridge went clear from the leading group, with Afoa/Eiking dropping O'Connor in the meantime, the peloton has slowed down a bit - for whatever reason that might have happened:
Partridge's advantage is up to 1'52" again! Afoa/Eiking are already 45 seconds in arrears, so he's definitely going for a 10km solo ride now!
Repsol is taking over the lead in the chase and with now just 5km to go, the peloton is 1'14" behind Partridge! Afoa/Eiking still in between them, but soon to be swallowed by the peloton - just like O'Connor, who's been reeled in already.
110 riders are left in the peloton with more and more riders struggling to hang on...
.. Robert and Laizer as the most notable names being dropped! The TT specialists would always going to struggle on the challenging flat stages here and the crosswinds (up to 48kmh now) do their damage as well. They are part of a group, that is already 2'45" behind the peloton - if they had minor GC ambitiouns here, there are already gone on this first day.
Partridge probably hadn't any GC ambitiouns here, but he's going strong towards a solo victory! The Brit has already entered the finishing stretch and has just 1.5km to go: we're hitting the uphill sector with the slopes going up to 4-5% now..
The peloton is now 46" in arrears - no trains or stuff like that, they are simply trying to somehow catch the solo leader!
And the sprint in the bunch has been kicked off now - let's have a look, at who's in the front rows:
Kreder launches his sprint from the leading position!
Berdos Bole - Park Angarita - Von Hoff Bajc Opie - Kamberaj - Martinez Anderson Salleh Dennis Serrano Roson - Kneisky Bercz - Hardy - Reus - Haller Schoonbroodt
Partridge still leading by quite a margin, but he's significally slower than Kreder and the other riders at the front of the pack:
Kreder with a clear advantage and now we have Angarita, Bole, Park and Von Hoff in the front row..
Oh, this will be a close one for Partridge, who can't really keep a good pace anymore! Kreder is coming closer with a still a couple of hundred metres to go!
Angarita trying to hang on with Anderson now moving forward with some great speed!
Von Hoff is done, just like Park, who's totally fading away now. Martinez as Eddie Stobart's second option, Bole, a strong Serrano, Opie and Bajc ahead of Salleh.. Haller though disappeared, suffering from the slopes now!
Partridge is empty, Kreder though hasn't yet went past him! Anderson comes flying and goes past Kreder!
Angarita head-to-head with Bole and Martinez is still ahead of Opie and Salleh now..
Anderson takes the opening stage in Ballarat! A fantastic finishing kick to go past Partridge and Kreder for quite a comfortable win eventually. Perfect timed sprint.
Kreder has to settle for 2nd - he went early and looked impressive. Anderson though had just an incredible fast final few hundred metres today.
Partridge still ahead of the next sprinter.. Bole has opened up a gap on Angarita/Martinez.. Serrano and a strong finishing Dennis in the mix for the Top-10 as well!
Partridge finishes 3rd! A kinda unlucky final kilometre for the Brit, who entered the finishing stretch with quite a big gap. Still a great result though and the KoM lead will make it even better.
Bole finishes 4th then..
Angarita completes the Top-5 ahead of Martinez and Opie..
Salleh comes in as 8th ahead of Serrano and Dennis. The latter showing some strength on this opening day, leaving no questions, whether he's up for the GC title campaign or not!
Schoonbroodt 11th ahead of Hardy, Bercz (who might have hoped for something better today), Bajc and Monfort.. Von Hoff (18th), Haller (27th) and Park (29th) cracked on the challenging uphill finish.
The earlier mentioned dropped group with Laizer and Robert eventually lost 3'32" and a smaller group with Rijntjes as the most notable name lost 2'38" after being dropped on the final few kilometres.
The GC situation is as follows:
Anderson leading the race by just 2 seconds on Kreder, who takes the points lead thanks to his points/bonifications at today's first intermediate sprint. Both should fancy their chances for tomorrow's quite undulating route as well.
Partridge 10 seconds off as 3rd, Afoa, Salleh, Eiking, Angarita and Bole on the further positions.
