Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Giro finale Photo ©: Bettini |
Tour of the Southern Grampians - NE
Australia, April 8-9, 2006
Main Page Results Overall standings Next Stage
Stage 1 - April 8: Coleraine, 39km
Veterans show how it's done
By David Tozer
At just under 40 kilometres and no King of the Mountains bonuses on offer, stage 1 was always going to be a stage for the sprinters, and while the GC looked to be a young man’s domain, the same could not be said for the race to be sprint king. At the top of the fast twitch muscle tree were two elder statesman of the field. Brett Aitken (Savings & Loans) and Leigh Egan (Leigh Egan Cycles) have both had more sprint victories than they probably care to remember. The question was; would a solo effort spoil the sprinters morning?
How it unfolded
The stage began with the steady climb out of Coleraine. There didn’t seem to be anyone interested in making a serious early break attempt and those that attacked half-heartedly were soon recaptured. The stage was well controlled by riders from Leigh Egan Cycles and Savings & Loans but in reality most of the GC contenders were biding their time, saving energy for the colossal stage that awaited them in the afternoon.
So, apart from a couple of late solo attempts that were quickly countered, the stage went to script. With one kilometre to go all looked set for a drama free bunch kick to the line. That was until the arrowhead pack had to negotiate a number of sharpish turns in the last 800 metres. The commissaries had given substantial warnings prior to the race about the need for caution approaching the right then left hand corners but little heed was given. The 50 strong field were determined to fit in to corners that just weren’t big enough for that many riders. You didn’t have to be a member of Mensa to see what was going to happen. Carnage best describes the events of the last three corners. Unlike stem cell researchers, a cyclist doesn’t consider his bike being separated into two pieces a good thing! Miraculously no one was seriously injured.
The remnants of the field continued on to contest the finish. Fortunately the crowd got to see the fairytale ending. Egan and Aitken had safely avoided the train wreck that had occurred behind them and moved to the front in the final 200 metres to have an old fashion one on one sprint for the stage. It was the Victorian Leigh Egan that managed to hold out a fast finishing Brett Aitken to take stage 1 honours. This result was upheld despite a protest from the Savings & Loans speedster.
Egan, an ex-world champion BMX star was quoted as saying “I looked like I was delivering Herald-Sun newspapers in the last 20 metres!” was happy with the result but was also mindful of what lay ahead. “We’ll look to help out Scott Peoples for GC and I hope to be back in the action in the final stage criterium.”
Results
A Grade 1 Leigh Egan (Shepparton CC) 55.30 2 Brett Aitken (Adelaide CC) 3 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 4 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 5 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 6 Stephen Cunningham (Adelaide CC) 7 Damien Turner (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 8 Will Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 9 Damien Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 10 Jarod Moroni (Bendigo & District CC) 11 Tim Hucker (Bendigo & District CC) 12 Peter Barnett (Broadford-Seymour CC) 13 Jacob Sutherland (Brunswick CC) 14 Raymond Forbes (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Steve Pilson (Coburg CC) 16 Christopher Fry (Geelong CC) 17 Jai Crawford (Hobart Wheelers) 18 James Hannam (Norwood CC) 19 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 20 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 21 Andrew Graham (Port Fairy CC) 22 Bradley Scott (Shepparton CC) 23 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 24 Matthew Wood (Ararat & District CC) 25 Glen O'Shea (Bendigo & District CC) 26 William Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 27 Alexander Smyth (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 28 Daniel Braunsteins (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 29 Ricky Peoples (Shepparton CC) 30 Jason Hegert (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 31 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 32 Casey Munro (Brunswick CC) 33 Nick Culvenor (Brunswick CC) 34 Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) 35 Fabio Calabria (Canberra CC) 36 Cameron Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 37 Michael Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 38 Daniel Furmston (Hobart Wheelers) 39 Andrew Roe (Norwood CC) 40 Scott Peoples (Shepparton CC) 41 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 42 Tim Walker (West Tamar CC) 43 Jordan Sutherland (Coburg CC) 44 Leigh Howard (Geelong CC) 45 Daryl Burns (MTBA) 46 Josh Smith (Adelaide CC) 4.55 47 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) DNS Russell Van Hout (Adelaide CC) DNS Nathan Masters (Geelong CC) DNS Nicholas Sanderson (Ararat & District CC) DNS Bradley Payne (CATS) Women (39km) 1 Alicia Evans (Geelong CC) 1.06.40 2 Peta Mullens (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 3 Lisa Friend (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 4 Deborah Fagg (Albury-Wodonga CC) 5 Emma Gaul (Footscray CC) 6 Stephanie Frawley (Mildura-Coomealla) 7 Melinda Rolland (St Kilda CC) 5.41 8 Kylie Strong (St Kilda CC) 9 Karan Courtney-Hagg (St Kilda CC) 10 Claire Stevens (Coburg CC) 7.20 11 Natalie Howard (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 12 Penny Beaver (Albury-Wodonga CC) 10.03 B Grade (39km) 1 Andrew Steele (Blackburn CC) 1.00.02 2 Wayne Evans (Blackburn CC) 3 Andrew Wilson (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 4 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 5 Matthew Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 6 Jay Burke (Ballarat) 7 Steve Martin (Blackburn CC) 8 Dylan Hately (Camperdown) 9 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 10 Greg Nicolson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 11 Cameron Winton (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 12 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 13 Scott Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 14 Peter Howard (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 James Langedyk (Geelong CC) 16 Ryan Mannix (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 17 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 18 Jamie Paisley (MTBA) 19 Cameron Bowden (Norwood CC) 20 Christos Winter (Norwood CC) 21 Tim Roe (Norwood CC) 22 Graeme Rutter (Sutherland Shire CC) 23 Luke Hanley (Warragul CC) 24 Brian McNamara (Warrnambool CC) 25 Chris Cheney (Warrnambool CC) 26 Stuart Morgan (Coburg CC) 27 John Hughson (Geelong CC) 28 Christopher Eichler (Hamilton) 29 Paul Nolte (Hamilton) 30 Robert Mann (Mt Gambier CC) 31 Bruce Tallon (St Kilda CC) 32 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 33 Chris Stack (Norwood CC) 3.07 34 Ben Ledwidge (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 3.52 35 Errol Schmidt (Mildura-Coomealla) 36 Benjamin Serpell (Warragul CC) 37 Timothy Lee (Warragul CC) 38 Daniel Smith (Norwood CC) 5.15 39 Dayton Walker (Norwood CC) 7.55 DNS Ken Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) C Grade (39km) 1 Matthew Opperman (Mt Gambier CC) 1.01.48 2 David Moreland (Bendigo CC) 3 Paul Munro (Brunswick CC) 4 Richard Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 5 Stefan Kirsch (Blackburn CC) 6 Robert Gaggini (Adelaide CC) 7 Adam Webb (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 8 Anthony Peacock (Blackburn CC) 9 Stuart Bendall (Blackburn CC) 10 Tim Clarke (Blackburn CC) 11 Andrew Gannon (Brunswick CC) 12 Glen Hastings (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 13 Geoff Pyman (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 14 Glyn Thomas (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Matthew Davis (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 16 Shannon Hall (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 17 Tom McDonough (Coburg CC) 18 John Anderson (Hamilton CC) 19 Brooke Nelson (Hamilton CC) 20 Gavin Drury (Illawarra CC) 21 Aaron Christensen (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 22 Cam Woolcock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 23 Craig Van Der Valk (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 24 Stewart Denmead (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 25 Peter McDonough (MTBA) 26 Joel Watson (MTBA) 27 Phillip Angus (Mt Gambier CC) 28 Nicholas Kidman (Mt Gambier CC) 29 Derek James (Mt Gambier CC) 30 Mark Zander (Northcote CC) 31 Steve Rylance (Norwood CC) 32 Luke Aggett (Port Fairy CC) 33 Roland Evans (Port Fairy CC) 34 Michael Hartman (Preston CC) 35 Kevin Harnett (Sturt Holdfast Marion) 36 John Marcan (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 37 Edmund Knowles (Sutherland Shire CC) 38 Rohan Creed (Warrnambool CC) 39 Paul Ambry (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 40 Robert Moore (St Kilda CC) 41 Timothy Kirkham (Footscray CC) 0.34 42 Michael Chiller (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.57 43 Luke Burns (Warrnambool CC) 4.29 44 Sean Gallagher (Mildura-Coomealla) 6.00 45 Jonathan King (Norwood CC) 46 Simon Nettleton (Hamilton CC) 7.12 47 Adrian Grech (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 10.00 48 Scott Noonan (Mt Gambier CC) DNS Charlie Bottero (St Kilda CC) D Grade (39km) 1 Neil Duncan (Port Fairy CC) 1.04.46 2 Stuart Verrier (Brunswick CC) 3 Douglas Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 4 Troy Sait (Bendigo & District CC) 5 Andres Rojas (Coburg CC) 6 Brad Hazell (Albury-Wodonga CC) 7 Richard Senior (Albury-Wodonga CC) 8 Malcolm Clayton (Ararat & District CC) 9 Adrian Sinnatt (Blackburn CC) 10 Steve Petersen (Brunswick CC) 11 Nicholas Robinson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 12 Jason Laird (Coburg CC) 13 Wayne Gebert (Coburg CC) 14 Paul Bosch (Hamilton CC) 15 Andrew McGrath (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 16 Peter Doody (Mildura-Coomella) 17 Malcolm Tirrabassi (Mt Gambier CC) 18 Matt Janssen (Norwood CC) 19 Stephen Cook (St Kilda CC) 20 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 21 Evan Butler (Blackburn CC) 22 Neale Adams (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 23 Greg Gillard (Coburg CC) 24 Ken Dacomb (Hamilton CC) 25 Laurie Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 26 Arthur Anderson (Mildura-Coomella) 27 John Lokan (Mildura-Coomealla) 28 Thomas Dermody (Mt Gambier CC) 29 William Probert (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 30 Gerard O'Brien (Horsham CC) 0.14 31 Richard McClelland (Albury-Wodonga CC) 1.53 32 Clive Madder (Brunswick CC) 33 Graham Prossor (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.27 34 Chris Hitchen (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 4.22 35 Tom Barry (MTBA) 7.50 36 Howard Bartlett (Mt Gambier CC) 7.55 37 Stuart Pratt (Mt Gambier CC) 8.59 38 Dieter Georg (Adelaide) 9.21 39 Ron Petersen (Chelsea & Peninsula CC) 12.57 40 Matthew Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 26.46 DNS Mark Higginbotham (Brunswick CC) DNS Paul Simpson (Coburg CC) General Classification after Stage 1 A Grade 1 Leigh Egan (Shepparton CC) 55.15 2 Brett Aitken (Adelaide CC) 0.05 3 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 0.08 4 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 0.11 5 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 0.13 6 Stephen Cunningham (Adelaide CC) 0.15 7 Damien Turner (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 8 Will Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 9 Damien Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 10 Jarod Moroni (Bendigo & District CC) 11 Tim Hucker (Bendigo & District CC) 12 Peter Barnett (Broadford-Seymour CC) 13 Jacob Sutherland (Brunswick CC) 14 Raymond Forbes (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Steve Pilson (Coburg CC) 16 Christopher Fry (Geelong CC) 17 Jai Crawford (Hobart Wheelers) 18 James Hannam (Norwood CC) 19 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 20 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 21 Andrew Graham (Port Fairy CC) 22 Bradley Scott (Shepparton CC) 23 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 24 Matthew Wood (Ararat & District CC) 25 Glen O'Shea (Bendigo & District CC) 26 William Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 27 Alexander Smyth (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 28 Daniel Braunsteins (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 29 Ricky Peoples (Shepparton CC) 30 Jason Hegert (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 31 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 32 Casey Munro (Brunswick CC) 33 Nick Culvenor (Brunswick CC) 34 Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) 35 Fabio Calabria (Canberra CC) 36 Cameron Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 37 Michael Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 38 Daniel Furmston (Hobart Wheelers) 39 Andrew Roe (Norwood CC) 40 Scott Peoples (Shepparton CC) 41 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 42 Tim Walker (West Tamar CC) 43 Jordan Sutherland (Coburg CC) 44 Leigh Howard (Geelong CC) 45 Daryl Burns (MTBA) 46 Josh Smith (Adelaide CC) 5.10 47 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) DNS Russell Van Hout (Adelaide CC) DNS Nathan Masters (Geelong CC) DNS Nicholas Sanderson (Ararat & District CC) DNS Bradley Payne (CATS) Women 1 Alicia Evans (Geelong CC) 1.06.25 2 Peta Mullens (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.05 3 Lisa Friend (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.08 4 Deborah Fagg (Albury-Wodonga CC) 0.11 5 Emma Gaul (Footscray CC) 0.13 6 Stephanie Frawley (Mildura-Coomealla) 0.15 7 Melinda Rolland (St Kilda CC) 5.56 8 Kylie Strong (St Kilda CC) 9 Karan Courtney-Hagg (St Kilda CC) 10 Claire Stevens (Coburg CC) 7.35 11 Natalie Howard (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 12 Penny Beaver (Albury-Wodonga CC) 10.18 B Grade 1 Andrew Steele (Blackburn CC) 59.47 2 Wayne Evans (Blackburn CC) 0.05 3 Andrew Wilson (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 0.08 4 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 0.11 5 Matthew Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.13 6 Jay Burke (Ballarat) 0.15 7 Steve Martin (Blackburn CC) 8 Dylan Hately (Camperdown) 9 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 10 Greg Nicolson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 11 Cameron Winton (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 12 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 13 Scott Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 14 Peter Howard (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 James Langedyk (Geelong CC) 16 Ryan Mannix (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 17 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 18 Jamie Paisley (MTBA) 19 Cameron Bowden (Norwood CC) 20 Christos Winter (Norwood CC) 21 Tim Roe (Norwood CC) 22 Graeme Rutter (Sutherland Shire CC) 23 Luke Hanley (Warragul CC) 24 Brian McNamara (Warrnambool CC) 25 Chris Cheney (Warrnambool CC) 26 Stuart Morgan (Coburg CC) 27 John Hughson (Geelong CC) 28 Christopher Eichler (Hamilton) 29 Paul Nolte (Hamilton) 30 Robert Mann (Mt Gambier CC) 31 Bruce Tallon (St Kilda CC) 32 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 33 Chris Stack (Norwood CC) 3.22 34 Ben Ledwidge (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 4.07 35 Errol Schmidt (Mildura-Coomealla) 36 Benjamin Serpell (Warragul CC) 37 Timothy Lee (Warragul CC) 38 Daniel Smith (Norwood CC) 5.30 39 Dayton Walker (Norwood CC) 8.10 DNS Ken Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) C Grade 1 Matthew Opperman (Mt Gambier CC) 1.01.33 2 David Moreland (Bendigo CC) 0.05 3 Paul Munro (Brunswick CC) 0.08 4 Richard Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 0.11 5 Stefan Kirsch (Blackburn CC) 0.13 6 Robert Gaggini (Adelaide CC) 0.15 7 Adam Webb (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 8 Anthony Peacock (Blackburn CC) 9 Stuart Bendall (Blackburn CC) 10 Tim Clarke (Blackburn CC) 11 Andrew Gannon (Brunswick CC) 12 Glen Hastings (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 13 Geoff Pyman (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 14 Glyn Thomas (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Matthew Davis (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 16 Shannon Hall (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 17 Tom McDonough (Coburg CC) 18 John Anderson (Hamilton CC) 19 Brooke Nelson (Hamilton CC) 20 Gavin Drury (Illawarra CC) 21 Aaron Christensen (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 22 Cam Woolcock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 23 Craig Van Der Valk (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 24 Stewart Denmead (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 25 Peter McDonough (MTBA) 26 Joel Watson (MTBA) 27 Phillip Angus (Mt Gambier CC) 28 Nicholas Kidman (Mt Gambier CC) 29 Derek James (Mt Gambier CC) 30 Mark Zander (Northcote CC) 31 Steve Rylance (Norwood CC) 32 Luke Aggett (Port Fairy CC) 33 Roland Evans (Port Fairy CC) 34 Michael Hartman (Preston CC) 35 Kevin Harnett (Sturt Holdfast Marion) 36 John Marcan (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 37 Edmund Knowles (Sutherland Shire CC) 38 Rohan Creed (Warrnambool CC) 39 Paul Ambry (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 40 Robert Moore (St Kilda CC) 41 Timothy Kirkham (Footscray CC) 0.49 42 Michael Chiller (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 3.12 43 Luke Burns (Warrnambool CC) 4.44 44 Sean Gallagher (Mildura-Coomealla) 6.15 45 Jonathan King (Norwood CC) 46 Simon Nettleton (Hamilton CC) 7.27 47 Adrian Grech (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 10.15 48 Scott Noonan (Mt Gambier CC) DNS Charlie Bottero (St Kilda CC) D Grade 1 Neil Duncan (Port Fairy CC) 1.04.31 2 Stuart Verrier (Brunswick CC) 0.05 3 Douglas Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 0.08 4 Troy Sait (Bendigo & District CC) 0.11 5 Andres Rojas (Coburg CC) 0.13 6 Brad Hazell (Albury-Wodonga CC) 0.15 7 Richard Senior (Albury-Wodonga CC) 8 Malcolm Clayton (Ararat & District CC) 9 Adrian Sinnatt (Blackburn CC) 10 Steve Petersen (Brunswick CC) 11 Nicholas Robinson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 12 Jason Laird (Coburg CC) 13 Wayne Gebert (Coburg CC) 14 Paul Bosch (Hamilton CC) 15 Andrew McGrath (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 16 Peter Doody (Mildura-Coomella) 17 Malcolm Tirrabassi (Mt Gambier CC) 18 Matt Janssen (Norwood CC) 19 Stephen Cook (St Kilda CC) 20 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 21 Evan Butler (Blackburn CC) 22 Neale Adams (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 23 Greg Gillard (Coburg CC) 24 Ken Dacomb (Hamilton CC) 25 Laurie Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 26 Arthur Anderson (Mildura-Coomella) 27 John Lokan (Mildura-Coomealla) 28 Thomas Dermody (Mt Gambier CC) 29 William Probert (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 30 Gerard O'Brien (Horsham CC) 0.29 31 Richard McClelland (Albury-Wodonga CC) 2.08 32 Clive Madder (Brunswick CC) 33 Graham Prossor (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.42 34 Chris Hitchen (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 4.37 35 Tom Barry (MTBA) 8.05 36 Howard Bartlett (Mt Gambier CC) 8.10 37 Stuart Pratt (Mt Gambier CC) 9.14 38 Dieter Georg (Adelaide) 9.36 39 Ron Petersen (Chelsea & Peninsula CC) 13.12 40 Matthew Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 27.01 DNS Mark Higginbotham (Brunswick CC) DNS Paul Simpson (Coburg CC)
