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Jayco Tour of Tasmania - NE
Australia, August 17-21, 2005
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Stage 2 - August 17: Grindelwald - Bridport, 93.9 km
Higgerson impresses on day 1
By Rod Morris in Bridport
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Last week, Shaun Higgerson was stacking shelves in a suburban Sydney supermarket. Now he carries the yellow leader's jersey in the prestigious Tattersall's Cup Jayco Tour of Tasmania. Higgerson (20) was a surprise winner of today's opening stage of the nine race tour from Launceston the picturesque Swiss-like village of Grindelwald and then to prove it was no fluke, finished fifth in the afternoon stage from Grindelwald to Bridport, 94 km away.
Higgerson will carry a slender 8-second lead into tomorrow's third and fourth stages, which include a criterium in the North-East township of Scottsdale and then an afternoon 41 km sprint from Scottsdale to nearby Lilydale. The Sutherland rider has not ridden seriously since returning from the Tour of Korea in May.
"I've hardly been on the bike for three months apart from a little training, so I was not expecting to win a race here," Higgerson said. "I've been working in a local supermarket back home to earn a few dollars so I can get to races like these. I had hoped to ride in America at Superweek, but the deal fell through, so there's hasn't been any racing for me," he added.
Higgerson was a member of a six man breakaway group that opened up a gap of almost two minutes in the morning stage and then outsprinted Queenslander David Kemp and New Zealand champ Gordon McCauley in the closing stages.
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The afternoon stage saw another surprise result when former World Under 23 Triathlon medallist Stuart Shaw outgunned one of the tour's big name riders - David McKenzie - in the race into Bridport. Shaw won a stage of the recent Tour of Gippsland, which was the first of three legs of the Tattersall's Cup and in just his fourth multi-day race has already forged a powerful reputation.
"I'm still pretty raw at this road racing caper, but I'm enjoying it enormously...obviously when you can win a race you enjoy it more," he said.
Shaw was involved in a break of 10 riders, who settled into a rhythm that worked like clockwork. The group included some of the pre-tour favourites, namely David McKenzie, Gordon McCauley and last minute entry, Tasmanian Matthew Goss.
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McKenzie had finished at the head of the chasing bunch in the morning stage, losing 1'30 to Higgerson, but his afternoon performance saw him jump back into contention and is now fourth on General Classification honours, although still 1'18 minutes adrift of the leader. McCauley has spent the last week in Tasmania in training, cut his morning deficit of 12 seconds back to 8, while Goss was one of the big movers in Stage 2. The dual World Junior Track medallist, missed the morning break, finishing 24th and facing a chase of 2'08 minutes to pick up on the leaders. With six of the top 10 GC riders in the afternoon break, Goss did well to claw his way back into seventh position, although he still trails Higgerson by 1'57.
"I'm happy with where I am positioned, I've only been home for about 10 days after a fair stint overseas, so I'm still trying to recover," the Tasmanian star said. "I will ride seriously in this tour and try to get a high GC position, but the real goal will be a World Cup track event in Moscow in November."
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The morning stage into Grindelwald featured some of Tasmania's most scenic terrain, its just a pity the riders who were motoring along at 40 kph, didn't have the chance to enjoy it.
"It was a great race and full of tactics," Higgerson said. "That big Tasmanian, Matthew Rice worked really hard for the entire race and of course McCauley was pretty keen to win a stage of this tour as well, so it was a matter of which rider to watch," he added. "I ended up making my final sprint at about 600m to go and luckily enough, I was able to hold on to win."
With Kemp and McCauley filling the minor placings, fellow breakaway riders, Simon Clarke, Matthew Rice and Andrew Naylor grabbed a smaller share of the bonus time points on offer before McKenzie and former Australian time trial champion Josh Collingwood (SA) led the bunch home. But losing more than a minute in such a short stage would have hurt psychologically and the afternoon reaction from McKenzie was expected.
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Shaw's afternoon breakaway belittled the bunch, but it also showed which riders were working for others. At one section the gap had blown out to 4 minutes before a token fight back from the peloton reduced the margin to 3'12 minutes when Robert McLachlan led the chasing bunch home. By that stage, Shaw, McKenzie, Goss and fellow breakaways had cooled down, packed their bikes away and were ready to return to home base.
Shaw is riding for the newly developed MGPower team, which so far in this Tattersall's Cup series has won seven stages, Shaw (2), McLachlan (4) and Higgerson (1). "We (MGPower) are probably not going to win GC honours, so we're after as many stage wins as possible, seven out of 11 so far, is not a bad return," he grinned. "I reckon our sponsors would be pretty happy with that."
The Jayco Tour of Tasmania enters its second day with events around Scottsdale before North-West Coast sports fans get a glimpse of one of the country's best road races.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com
- Tour leader Shaun Higgerson signs on for stage two
- Stage two of the tour began from the Swiss village of Grindelwald near Launceston
- The peloton makes its way through the picturesque Tamar Valley in Tasmania's North
- The field passes Marion's Vineyard along the Tamar River
- The peloton crosses the Batman Bridge over the Tamar River
- The Tour of Tasmania with the Tamar River in the background
- The bunch heads towards Bridport on the East Tamar in Northern Tasmania
- Gordon McCauley of New Zealand feels the pain of the Tour of Tasmania
- Matt Goss a local hope in the tour
- There is plenty of road kill in Tassie to keep the peloton on its toes
- Riders head through the hills of Northern Tasmania fifty kilometres from Launceston
- The chasing bunch climbing towards Bridport
- Stuart Shaw, second from the right, looking for more good results after the Tour of Gippsland
- The lead group pull some faces in the hills
- Sprint points are up for grabs at Pipers River general store
- There are plenty of wineries along the North Eastern side of Tasmania
- Stuart Shaw from the A.C.T takes stage two into Bridport
- Stuart Shaw finding the transition from triathlons to road racing a breeze
- The podium from stage two (L-R): David McKenzie (2nd) Stuart Shaw (1st) and Matt Goss (3rd)
- David McKenzie puts on his Subaru Most Aggressive rider's jersey for the stage
- David Kemp the Tattersall's Sprints Points leader after stage two
- Don Porter from the Latrobe Valley presents the yellow jersey to tour leader Shaun Higgerson
Results
1 Stuart Shaw 2.16.33 41.26km/h 2 David McKenzie 3 Matthew Goss 4 Gordon McCauley 0.01 5 Shaun Higgerson 6 Simon Clarke 7 Richard Moffatt 0.03 8 Nathan Wise 9 Luke Weir 0.05 10 Patrick Shaw 0.15 11 Robert McLachlan 3.12 12 Bernard Sulzberger 13 Peter McDonald 14 Daniel Burtt 15 David Kemp 3.15 16 Peter Milostic 17 Daniel Furmston 3.16 18 Sean Finning 19 Trent Stevenson 20 Matt Haydock 21 Matthew Rice 22 Heath Keenan 23 Andrew Hanigan 3.19 24 Timothy Walker 25 Matthew Gilbert 26 William Robinson 4.18 27 Peter Dawson 28 David Hiley 29 Wesley Sulzberger 30 Jarrod Harman 31 Samuel Rix 32 Joshua Wall 33 Aaron Salisbury 34 Luke Bettany 35 Andrew Naylor 36 Cameron Wise 37 Robert Cater 38 Joshua Marden 39 Luke Dale 40 Matthew Sydes 41 Nash Kent 42 Robert Tighello 43 Phil Gough 44 Mathew Rex 45 Caleb Manion 46 Darren Lapthorne 47 Jason Hegert 48 Peter Ladd 49 Steven Pilson 50 Robert Hodgson 51 James Maebus 52 Simon Van Der Aa 53 Joshua Collingwood 54 Sid Taberlay 55 Michael Ford 56 Russell Gill 57 Chris Jongewaard 58 Corey Roberts 59 Johhny Walker 60 Casey Munro 61 Peter Herzig 62 Kirk Eddy 21.06 63 Andrew Ward 23.28 64 Michael Hardy 23.51 65 William Murray 66 David Oliver 67 Glenn Myler 68 Brendan Washington 69 Steven Robb 70 John Rayner 25.44 71 Jason Johnson 38.37 72 Andrew Cochrane 40.14 73 Scott Peoples 52.35 Sprints Gravelly Beach General Store 1 Heath Keenan 3 pts 2 David Kemp 2 3 Samuel Rix 1 Marions Winery 1 David McKenzie 3 pts 2 Joshua Collingwood 2 3 Wesley Sulzberger 1 Pipers River General Store 1 Richard Moffatt 3 pts 2 Gordon McCauley 2 3 David McKenzie 1 Delamere Winery 1 David McKenzie 3 pts 2 Patrick Shaw 2 3 Shaun Higgerson 1 Mountains Climb 1 1 Matthew Goss 3 pts 2 Sid Taberlay 2 3 Bernard Sulzberger 1 Climb 2 1 Matthew Goss 3 pts 2 Gordon McCauley 2 3 Shaun Higgerson 1 Climb 3 1 Gordon McCauley 3 pts 2 Matthew Goss 2 3 Richard Moffatt 1 Climb 4 1 Stuart Shaw 3 pts 2 Gordon McCauley 2 3 Nathan Wise 1 Most Aggressive Rider Gordon McCauley David McKenzie General Classification after stage 2 1 Shaun Higgerson 3.30.07 2 Gordon McCauley 0.08 3 Simon Clarke 0.25 4 David McKenzie 1.18 5 Stuart Shaw 1.21 6 Richard Moffatt 1.33 7 Matthew Goss 1.57 8 Luke Weir 2.27 9 Patrick Shaw 2.53 10 Nathan Wise 3.21 11 David Kemp 3.28 12 Matthew Rice 4.02 13 Robert McLachlan 4.49 14 Peter McDonald 4.58 15 Peter Milostic 5.01 16 Bernard Sulzberger 5.09 17 Daniel Furmston 5.14 18 Andrew Naylor 5.15 19 Matt Haydock 5.36 20 Timothy Walker 5.39 21 Sean Finning 5.42 22 Daniel Burtt 5.44 23 Andrew Hanigan 5.46 24 Joshua Collingwood 5.50 25 Wesley Sulzberger 6.03 26 Peter Herzig 6.04 27 Robert Tighello 28 Sid Taberlay 6.14 29 Johhny Walker 6.16 30 Luke Dale 31 Caleb Manion 32 Robert Hodgson 6.23 33 Joshua Wall 6.29 34 Phil Gough 6.38 35 Cameron Wise 36 Joshua Marden 37 James Maebus 6.44 38 Mathew Rex 39 Jarrod Harman 6.45 40 Darren Lapthorne 6.50 41 Nash Kent 42 David Hiley 43 Trent Stevenson 6.55 44 Peter Ladd 7.08 45 Jason Hegert 46 Casey Munro 7.17 47 Peter Dawson 48 Matthew Gilbert 7.19 49 Michael Ford 7.23 50 Steven Pilson 7.32 51 Chris Jongewaard 7.35 52 Simon Van Der Aa 7.37 53 Matthew Sydes 54 William Robinson 55 Luke Bettany 7.44 56 Heath Keenan 7.49 57 Samuel Rix 7.51 58 Corey Roberts 7.57 59 Russell Gill 60 Aaron Salisbury 8.18 61 Robert Cater 10.20 62 Kirk Eddy 25.06 63 Andrew Ward 26.00 64 Steven Robb 26.55 65 Brendan Washington 27.10 66 David Oliver 67 William Murray 28.04 68 John Rayner 28.11 69 Michael Hardy 28.22 70 Glenn Myler 32.18 71 Jason Johnson 43.56 72 Andrew Cochrane 48.29 73 Scott Peoples 56.57 Sprint Classification 1 David Kemp 8 pts 2 David McKenzie 7 3 Simon Clarke 5 4 Gordon McCauley 5 5 Heath Keenan 3 6 Richard Moffatt 3 7 Shaun Higgerson 3 8 Andrew Naylor 2 9 Patrick Shaw 2 10 Joshua Collingwood 2 11 Samuel Rix 1 12 Wesley Sulzberger 1 Mountains Classification 1 Gordon McCauley 12 pts 2 Matthew Goss 8 3 Shaun Higgerson 8 4 David Kemp 4 5 Stuart Shaw 3 6 Sid Taberlay 2 7 Nathan Wise 1 8 Richard Moffatt 1 9 Bernard Sulzberger 1
