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Tattersall's Cup - NE
Australia, July 28-August 25, 2004
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Race 4 - August 18: Tour of Baw Baw
McLachlan grabs another Tatt's win at Tour of Baw Baw
By Robert Gaylard
Barcelona Olympian Robert McLachlan has been watching his cycling mates prepare for their tilt at gold at the Olympics in Greece and remembering his moment of glory representing his country in 1992. In the Tour of Baw Baw the powerfully built McLachlan showed all his skill and sheer brute strength to dictate terms and grab glory of his own by winning the fourth race in $25,500 Tattersall's Cycling series.
The 33 year old ACT Kambah High School secondary school teacher held on to beat Victorian Christopher Bradford with New South Welshman David Tanner filling third spot. But it nearly became disaster for McLachlan as a group of seven riders started the sprint for home, 500 meters up the climb to the flag his gears slipped and his bike went on a 60 degree angle and only his skill kept the bike and himself upright to finally grab victory, his sixth in seven Tattersall's Cup races he's contested.
A little fog at the start soon turned into bright sunshine as riders were greeted with perfect conditions and a chance for the Warragul Shire to showcase its picturesque countryside, a far cry from the event 12 months earlier. The series became pleasurable for only a short time though as riders would be confronted with 6 hill climbs and 9 Intermediate sprints.
But it was the hill climbs that held fears for many and by 29 kms the first casualties felt the pressure, on the other side of the first Category 2 climb riders reached breakneck speeds and it was obvious that some were nervy on the decent.
Almost 50 kms in and 10 riders snuck away, this race promised to be a cracker, it contained all the form riders of the series so far, all but one, tour and series leader Peter Milostic (NSW) was shelled on the biggest climb of the day and was caught between the break away and the chasing group of 15 who were 1 minute 5 seconds down.
Robert McLachlan (ACT), David Mckenzie (Ball't) who had been grabbing many of the Hill climb points in the King of the mountain title with International Jorge Libonati, (Uruguay) 18 year old youngster William Walker, (Brunswick) with Tasmainian Jai Crawford and David Tanner (NSW) perhaps the favored ones to figure at the finish.
Milostic was caught in no mans land for some 10 kms before he waited for the chasing group who got within 38 seconds of the lead close to home, it looked like the chasing posse who had now grown to 30 might still be a chance.
McLachlan grabbed almost every sprint bonus after half way and while the others shared the spoils he was just all brut power, 13 kns from the little torture climb to the finish the leaders splintered as the pressure came on, it came down to 6 realistic chances one kilometer out as Tanner attacked then Bradford followed, McLachlan back in 6th wheel when his gears slipped and he all but fell, that seemed to stir the aggression in the big sprinter who exploded up the hill to grab Bradford close to home with Tanner hanging on for third.
Sprint King leader James Meadly (ACT) failed to have much impact today as McLachlan grabbed the bulk of the days points but he still leads by just 1pt with Milostic 3rd, while the King Of The Mountain battle looks all but over with David McKenzie (Ball't) opening a 15 point buffer to Chris Bradford (Carnegie).
With Peter Milostic finishing 17th the series gained a new leader, William Walker although suffering late in the race will be hoping for some help from a few team mates to keep the leaders jersey going into the final race in Tasmania next week. McLachlan is unlikely to race as his teaching commitments will keep him in Canberra but will be racing the Sunraysia Tour as his lead up to the Herald Sun Tour. McKenzie by his own admission was a bit soft today as the cold weather at Ballarat has deterred him from training but giving him time with his family which he has missed having not long returned from racing in China. He to will top his training off in the Sunraysia Tour also starting in Mildura on September2nd.
Piece of trivia: Of the top seven finishers 4 riders are either in the Australian under 23 or under 19 squads, adding strength to the Tatterall's Cup series unearthing our future cycling champions.
Results
1 Robert McLachlan 3.15.40 2 Christopher Bradford 3 David Tanner 0.05 4 David McKenzie 0.07 5 William Walker 0.09 6 Jai Crawford 0.11 7 Daniel McConnell 0.19 8 Richard England 0.33 9 Marc Williams 0.34 10 James Meadley 11 Peter Mueller 0.36 12 Joshua Wilson 0.37 13 Dominic Gatto 0.38 14 Christopher Tymms 0.40 15 Matthew Goold 16 Scott Lyttle 17 Peter Milostic 18 George Vallins 19 Samuel Lee 20 David Pell 21 Tim Buchanan 22 Phil Gough 23 Patrick Shaw 24 Brendan Jones 25 Daniel Bennett 26 Luciene Keene 0.51 27 Abi Wibowo 0.52 28 Anthony Challinor 0.53 29 R. Machejefski 0.57 30 Ashley Baines 1.00 31 Jorge Libonatti 32 Matthew Lloyd 1.03 33 Colin Thornton 34 Peter Ladd 1.07 35 Andrew Graham 4.39 36 Craig Johnson 6.30 37 Cameron Wise 8.09 38 Sam Bach 8.10 39 Stephen Blair 8.12 40 Daniel Brickell 41 John Walker 42 Darren Lapthorne 43 Kharne Hammersley 44 Trent Stevenson 8.21 45 Troy Glennan 46 Damien Forster 47 Timothy Decker 48 Ryan Moody 49 Wanwan Setyobudi 50 Dennis Markouris 51 Damien Turner 8.32 52 Justin Quinton 8.40 53 Nicholas Kiraly 8.48 54 James Maebus 19.06 55 Jason Hegert 19.19 56 David Hiley 19.21 57 Pete Knight 58 William Murray 59 Jarrod Clark 60 Samai 61 Jonathon Tainsh 62 Daniel Nelms 63 Ashley Hayat 29.18 64 Mathew Rex 40.37 65 Mark Hooper 66 Aaron Wilson 43.24 67 Daniel Burtt 48.42 68 Casey Munro 55.59 69 Samuel Rix 57.10 DNF Matnur DNF Simon Walker DNF Brad Edmunds DNF Alexander James DNF Warren Nelson DNF Dylan Newell DNF Scott Peoples DNF Trent Perry DNF Douglas Robinson DNF Brent Skippen DNF Michael Teggelove DNF Grant Webster DNF Will Wettenhall DNF Paul Richards Points classification after 4 races 1 William Walker 67 pts 2 David McKenzie 61 3 Christopher Bradford 60 4 Peter Milostic 57 5 Dominic Gatto 55 6 Robert McLachlan 46 7 James Meadley 46 8 David Tanner 46 9 Matthew Lloyd 45 10 David Pell 43 11 David McConnell 41 12 Hector Morales 38 13 Richard England 30 14 Jai Crawford 30 15 Mathew Rex 30 16 Samuel Rix 28 17 Stephen Cunningham 26 18 Daniel Newnham 26 19 Christopher Tymms 26 20 Joshua Wilson 26 21 George Vallins 23 22 Ryan Moody 20 23 Timothy Walker 20 24 Tony Mann 19 25 Peter Mueller 19 26 Marc Williams 19 27 Matthew Goold 17 28 Trent Stevenson 17 29 Brendan Jones 14 30 Sean Finning 14 31 Dylan Newell 13 Sprint classification 1 James Meadley 20 pts 2 Robert McLachlan 19 3 Peter Milostic 17 4 Sean Finning 14 5 Jorge Libonatti 13 6 Daniel Nelms 13 7 Ashley Baines 12 8 David McKenzie 11 9 Scott Guyton 10 10 Christopher Bradford 9 11 Andrew Graham 7 12 David Tanner 7 13 Tim Buchanan 6 14 David Pell 5 15 Anthony Challinor 4 16 Samuel Lee 4 17 Dominic Gatto 3 18 Mathew Rex 3 19 Tim Decker 2 20 Matthew Goold 2 21 Peter Ladd 2 22 Tony Mann 2 23 Daniel McConnell 2 24 Matnur 1 25 Wayne Nelson 1 26 Daniel Newnham 1 27 Simon Walker 1 28 Abi Wibowo 1 Mountains classification 1 David McKenzie 43 pts 2 Christopher Bradford 28 3 Robert McLachlan 16 4 Scott Guyton 15 5 James Meadley 13 6 Peter Milostic 8 7 Ashley Baines 8 8 Samuel Lee 8 9 Jorge Libonatti 7 10 William Walker 6 11 Dominic Gatto 3 12 Nick Kiraly 3 13 Daniel Nelms 3 14 David Tanner 3 15 Sean Finning 2 16 Casey Munro 2 17 Trent Perry 2 18 Ashley Hayat 1
