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Tour of the Southern Grampians - NE
Australia, April 8-9, 2006
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Stage 4 - April 9: Coleraine, 45km
Hegert the hero in Coleraine
The A Grade criterium was the last of five crits to be contested. A 3.40pm start meant that riders had ample time to rest and recover from the morning stage. The street circuit 1.9km criterium/kermese was bathed in sunshine, considering the weather experienced mid-week, this was a pleasant surprise. Having watched the earlier grades racing, it appeared as though either bunch sprints or break aways were possible. The congestion at the top of the GC leader board meant that the race was not going to be a victory parade.
How it unfolded
The course around the streets of Coleraine could best be described as an axe-handle. Six fast corners including a long start/finish line made for exciting, fast racing that many of the locals came out to enjoy. As had been the case during most of the racing throughout the weekend, riders wanting to test their legs were many. Once again Marcus Wettenhall, Will Dickeson and Andy Graham were active. Peter Barnett and Ray Forbes (Portfolio Partners) were also looking to get involved in escapes but it took until just after the second sprint bonus for something to ‘stick’. Up to that stage the GC contenders; Lapthorne, Walker, Hegert and Munro had all been fighting for precious bonus seconds. Nick Walker had secured enough bonus seconds by winning both sprints, to take the lead by 10 seconds. Hegert picked up a 2nd and Lapthorne a 3rd. The race director had to grab the abacus to keep up!
Lapthorne hit back in the third sprint and drew level with Walker. Perhaps it was while Lapthorne and Walker were trying to do the math that Hegert was able to sneak into a break away group, or perhaps the two leaders were only focused on each other, whatever the reason, the consequences were massive. Hegert was able to secure the final interim sprint bonus, whilst Walker and Lapthorne were back in the main bunch.
With the stage finish only nine kilometres away, a come from behind victory was possible. Hegert had covertly jumped to within 10 seconds of both Walker and Lapthorne. Bonuses on offer at the finish line were 1st – 15secs, 2nd – 10secs, 3rd – 7secs. The permutations were many.
Jason Hegert was adopting the great Kevin Johnson (NBA Point Guard) motto, “you can’t beat what you can’t catch”, whilst Nick Walker was calling to his amigo’s “presto, presto”. Michael Ford did a pretty quick Spanish translation, probably because he was getting similar messages from his team manager Dave Saunders, although I’m not sure what language Dave was speaking!! Ford put some monster turns down in an effort to bridge the gap to the leaders. With two laps to go Ford’s and Walker’s dual efforts seemed to be in vane but they persisted and perhaps a hesitation in the break away group assisted. What had seemed improbable with 3.8 kilometres to go was at 1.9 kilometres a possibility and at 400 metres was likely. The main group latched onto the leaders in the last 100 metres, somehow in the mayhem that followed, Jason Hegert was able to hold off the onslaught and take his most important victory of his career. Leigh Howard who had also been in the late break showed that he is more than just a trackie by taking 2nd and this year’s ‘rider to watch’ Ricky Peoples took 3rd. The chaos of the last second integration swamped both Nick Walker and Darren Lapthorne who finished out of the bonuses in 6th and 7th places on the stage.
Wow! What a finale, what a magnificent display of the young talent that Australian cycling continues to produce. The final podium places were filled by three very classy riders. Hegert 1st, Lapthorne 2nd (Courtesy of a count-back for his stage 2 victory) and a gallant Nick Walker in 3rd.
The Tour of Coleraine continued it’s short history of un-earthing great young talent, not much needs to be said about Will Walker’s 2004 triumph, Mark O’Brien has represented Australia since taking the 2005 win and now Jason Hegert adds his name to the honour roll. In what is clearly the outstanding 2 day tour in Victoria.
Results
A Grade 1 Jason Hegert (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 1.01.42 2 Leigh Howard (Geelong CC) 3 Ricky Peoples (Shepparton CC) 4 Glen O'Shea (Bendigo & District CC) 5 Nick Culvenor (Brunswick CC) 6 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 7 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 8 Daniel Furmston (Hobart Wheelers) 9 Stephen Cunningham (Adelaide CC) 10 Tim Walker (West Tamar CC) 11 Brett Aitken (Adelaide CC) 12 Damien Turner (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 13 Will Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 14 Damien Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 15 Tim Hucker (Bendigo & District CC) 16 Peter Barnett (Broadford-Seymour CC) 17 Jacob Sutherland (Brunswick CC) 18 Raymond Forbes (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 19 Steve Pilson (Coburg CC) 20 Christopher Fry (Geelong CC) 21 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 22 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 23 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 24 Andrew Graham (Port Fairy CC) 25 Bradley Scott (Shepparton CC) 26 Leigh Egan (Shepparton CC) 27 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 28 Matthew Wood (Ararat & District CC) 29 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) 30 William Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 31 Alexander Smyth (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 32 Daniel Braunsteins (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 33 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 34 Casey Munro (Brunswick CC) 35 Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) 36 Fabio Calabria (Canberra CC) 37 Cameron Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 38 Michael Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 39 Andrew Roe (Norwood CC) 40 Scott Peoples (Shepparton CC) 41 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 42 Jordan Sutherland (Coburg CC) 43 Josh Smith (Adelaide CC) 3.00 Women (18km) 1 Stephanie Frawley (Mildura-Coomealla) 32.55 2 Emma Gaul (Footscray CC) 0.38 3 Alicia Evans (Geelong CC) 4 Peta Mullens (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 5 Deborah Fagg (Albury-Wodonga CC) 6 Claire Stevens (Coburg CC) 7 Penny Beaver (Albury-Wodonga CC) 8 Melinda Rolland (St Kilda CC) 9 Kylie Strong (St Kilda CC) 10 Lisa Friend (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 11 Karan Courtney-Hagg (St Kilda CC) 2.10 B Grade (36km) 1 Cameron Bowden (Norwood CC) 55.17 2 Matthew Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 3 James Langedyk (Geelong CC) 4 Christopher Eichler (Hamilton) 5 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 6 Christos Winter (Norwood CC) 7 Scott Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 8 Greg Nicolson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 9 Brian McNamara (Warrnambool CC) 10 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 11 Jay Burke (Ballarat) 12 Wayne Evans (Blackburn CC) 13 Dylan Hately (Camperdown) 14 Ben Ledwidge (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 16 Cameron Winton (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 17 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 18 Peter Howard (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 19 Ryan Mannix (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 20 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 21 Jamie Paisley (MTBA) 22 Chris Stack (Norwood CC) 23 Tim Roe (Norwood CC) 24 Graeme Rutter (Sutherland Shire CC) 25 Benjamin Serpell (Warragul CC) 26 Luke Hanley (Warragul CC) 27 Timothy Lee (Warragul CC) 28 Chris Cheney (Warrnambool CC) 29 Stuart Morgan (Coburg CC) 30 John Hughson (Geelong CC) 31 Paul Nolte (Hamilton) 32 Robert Mann (Mt Gambier CC) 33 Bruce Tallon (St Kilda CC) 34 Andrew Wilson (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 35 Errol Schmidt (Mildura-Coomealla) 3.00 C Grade (27km) 1 Matthew Davis (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 40.45 2 David Moreland (Bendigo CC) 3 Paul Munro (Brunswick CC) 4 Phillip Angus (Mt Gambier CC) 5 Richard Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 6 Luke Aggett (Port Fairy CC) 7 Matthew Opperman (Mt Gambier CC) 8 Robert Gaggini (Adelaide CC) 9 Adam Webb (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 10 Stuart Bendall (Blackburn CC) 11 Tim Clarke (Blackburn CC) 12 Stefan Kirsch (Blackburn CC) 13 Andrew Gannon (Brunswick CC) 14 Glen Hastings (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Geoff Pyman (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 16 Glyn Thomas (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 17 Michael Chiller (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 18 Shannon Hall (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 19 Tom McDonough (Coburg CC) 20 John Anderson (Hamilton CC) 21 Simon Nettleton (Hamilton CC) 22 Gavin Drury (Illawarra CC) 23 Aaron Christensen (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 24 Cam Woolcock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 25 Stewart Denmead (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 26 Peter McDonough (MTBA) 27 Joel Watson (MTBA) 28 Nicholas Kidman (Mt Gambier CC) 29 Derek James (Mt Gambier CC) 30 Steve Rylance (Norwood CC) 31 Roland Evans (Port Fairy CC) 32 Michael Hartman (Preston CC) 33 Kevin Harnett (Sturt Holdfast Marion) 34 John Marcan (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 35 Edmund Knowles (Sutherland Shire CC) 36 Rohan Creed (Warrnambool CC) 37 Paul Ambry (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 38 Luke Burns (Warrnambool CC) 3.00 D Grade (18km) 1 Neale Adams (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 27.53 2 Matthew Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 3 Richard McClelland (Albury-Wodonga CC) 4 Stuart Verrier (Brunswick CC) 5 Adrian Sinnatt (Blackburn CC) 6 Steve Petersen (Brunswick CC) 7 Peter Doody (Mildura-Coomella) 8 Tom Barry (MTBA) 9 Brad Hazell (Albury-Wodonga CC) 10 Richard Senior (Albury-Wodonga CC) 11 Malcolm Clayton (Ararat & District CC) 12 Troy Sait (Bendigo & District CC) 13 Clive Madder (Brunswick CC) 14 Nicholas Robinson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Jason Laird (Coburg CC) 16 Andres Rojas (Coburg CC) 17 Wayne Gebert (Coburg CC) 18 Andrew McGrath (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 19 Malcolm Tirrabassi (Mt Gambier CC) 20 Stuart Pratt (Mt Gambier CC) 21 Matt Janssen (Norwood CC) 22 Stephen Cook (St Kilda CC) 23 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 24 Evan Butler (Blackburn CC) 25 Douglas Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 26 Ron Petersen (Chelsea & Peninsula CC) 27 Greg Gillard (Coburg CC) 28 Ken Dacomb (Hamilton CC) 29 Laurie Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 30 Gerard O'Brien (Horsham CC) 31 John Lokan (Mildura-Coomealla) 32 Thomas Dermody (Mt Gambier CC) 33 Chris Hitchen (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 34 Howard Bartlett (Mt Gambier CC) 3.00 Final General Classification A Grade 1 Jason Hegert (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 6.47.06 2 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 0.05 3 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 4 Casey Munro (Brunswick CC) 0.44 5 Fabio Calabria (Canberra CC) 4.27 6 Daniel Furmston (Hobart Wheelers) 4.29 7 Scott Peoples (Shepparton CC) 4.42 8 Jacob Sutherland (Brunswick CC) 6.26 9 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 7.31 10 Christopher Fry (Geelong CC) 7.43 11 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 7.54 12 William Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 9.57 13 Daniel Braunsteins (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 14 Jordan Sutherland (Coburg CC) 15 Tim Walker (West Tamar CC) 10.24 16 Leigh Howard (Geelong CC) 10.59 17 Leigh Egan (Shepparton CC) 11.07 18 Ricky Peoples (Shepparton CC) 11.15 19 Glen O'Shea (Bendigo & District CC) 11.18 20 Stephen Cunningham (Adelaide CC) 11.19 21 Tim Hucker (Bendigo & District CC) 11.22 22 Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) 23 Michael Ford (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 24 Brett Aitken (Adelaide CC) 11.33 25 Steve Pilson (Coburg CC) 11.43 26 Andrew Graham (Port Fairy CC) 27 Alexander Smyth (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 11.53 28 Nick Culvenor (Brunswick CC) 12.28 29 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) 16.38 30 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 16.42 31 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 16.51 32 Bradley Scott (Shepparton CC) 17.36 33 Damien Turner (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 18.22 34 Will Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 18.43 35 Matthew Wood (Ararat & District CC) 20.38 36 Cameron Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 37 Andrew Roe (Norwood CC) 38 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 39 Damien Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 21.26 40 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 23.57 41 Peter Barnett (Broadford-Seymour CC) 26.45 42 Josh Smith (Adelaide CC) 28.33 43 Raymond Forbes (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 30.04 Women 1 Deborah Fagg (Albury-Wodonga CC) 5.18.14 2 Alicia Evans (Geelong CC) 0.39 3 Peta Mullens (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 1.05 4 Lisa Friend (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.18 5 Emma Gaul (Footscray CC) 5.56 6 Stephanie Frawley (Mildura-Coomealla) 7.37 7 Melinda Rolland (St Kilda CC) 25.08 8 Kylie Strong (St Kilda CC) 9 Karan Courtney-Hagg (St Kilda CC) 26.40 10 Claire Stevens (Coburg CC) 28.50 11 Penny Beaver (Albury-Wodonga CC) 36.32 B Grade 1 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 6.25.34 2 Christos Winter (Norwood CC) 0.18 3 Matthew Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.20 4 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.31 5 Jay Burke (Ballarat) 0.36 6 Wayne Evans (Blackburn CC) 0.37 7 Stuart Morgan (Coburg CC) 0.39 8 Greg Nicolson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.40 9 Brian McNamara (Warrnambool CC) 0.44 10 Robert Mann (Mt Gambier CC) 0.45 11 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 0.46 12 Cameron Winton (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.49 13 Jamie Paisley (MTBA) 14 Tim Roe (Norwood CC) 15 Luke Hanley (Warragul CC) 16 Scott Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 1.05 17 Dylan Hately (Camperdown) 1.37 18 Cameron Bowden (Norwood CC) 3.59 19 John Hughson (Geelong CC) 4.15 20 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 5.16 21 Ryan Mannix (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 5.51 22 Graeme Rutter (Sutherland Shire CC) 23 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 7.04 24 Andrew Wilson (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 8.09 25 James Langedyk (Geelong CC) 9.35 26 Peter Howard (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 11.32 27 Christopher Eichler (Hamilton) 11.50 28 Paul Nolte (Hamilton) 14.07 29 Chris Stack (Norwood CC) 14.51 30 Bruce Tallon (St Kilda CC) 15.09 31 Chris Cheney (Warrnambool CC) 15.21 32 Benjamin Serpell (Warragul CC) 15.27 33 Ben Ledwidge (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 23.26 34 Timothy Lee (Warragul CC) 37.19 35 Errol Schmidt (Mildura-Coomealla) 1.02.48 C Grade 1 Matthew Davis (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 6.21.05 2 Paul Munro (Brunswick CC) 0.03 3 Matthew Opperman (Mt Gambier CC) 0.14 4 David Moreland (Bendigo CC) 0.23 5 Richard Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 0.45 6 Aaron Christensen (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 0.48 7 Andrew Gannon (Brunswick CC) 1.10 8 Phillip Angus (Mt Gambier CC) 2.03 9 Gavin Drury (Illawarra CC) 2.06 10 Glyn Thomas (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.07 11 Steve Rylance (Norwood CC) 2.20 12 Stefan Kirsch (Blackburn CC) 2.30 13 Glen Hastings (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 3.01 14 Tom McDonough (Coburg CC) 15 Stewart Denmead (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 3.04 16 Peter McDonough (MTBA) 17 Rohan Creed (Warrnambool CC) 18 Paul Ambry (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 4.04 19 Nicholas Kidman (Mt Gambier CC) 6.13 20 Geoff Pyman (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 6.34 21 Kevin Harnett (Sturt Holdfast Marion) 6.46 22 Shannon Hall (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 7.36 23 Robert Gaggini (Adelaide CC) 8.24 24 Joel Watson (MTBA) 10.13 25 Luke Aggett (Port Fairy CC) 10.25 26 Adam Webb (Ballarat & Sebastopol CC) 10.33 27 Stuart Bendall (Blackburn CC) 29 Derek James (Mt Gambier CC) 10.56 30 John Marcan (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 11.06 31 Michael Hartman (Preston CC) 12.19 32 Edmund Knowles (Sutherland Shire CC) 13.30 33 Roland Evans (Port Fairy CC) 16.07 34 Michael Chiller (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 28.48 35 John Anderson (Hamilton CC) 31.04 36 Cam Woolcock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 37 Tim Clarke (Blackburn CC) 33.23 38 Luke Burns (Warrnambool CC) 40.08 D Grade 1 Andrew McGrath (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 5.02.59 2 Evan Butler (Blackburn CC) 0.21 3 Malcolm Tirrabassi (Mt Gambier CC) 0.24 4 Nicholas Robinson (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.26 5 Neale Adams (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 1.57 6 Peter Doody (Mildura-Coomella) 2.06 7 Stuart Verrier (Brunswick CC) 2.37 8 Richard McClelland (Albury-Wodonga CC) 3.36 9 Wayne Gebert (Coburg CC) 3.37 10 Laurie Lovelock (Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club) 4.33 11 Gerard O'Brien (Horsham CC) 6.45 12 Jason Laird (Coburg CC) 7.37 13 Andres Rojas (Coburg CC) 8.19 14 Brad Hazell (Albury-Wodonga CC) 8.39 15 Adrian Sinnatt (Blackburn CC) 8.47 16 Thomas Dermody (Mt Gambier CC) 9.33 17 Ken Dacomb (Hamilton CC) 10.11 18 Richard Senior (Albury-Wodonga CC) 12.12 19 Steve Petersen (Brunswick CC) 12.42 20 Peter Ladd (Bendigo & District CC) 15.04 21 Stephen Cook (St Kilda CC) 17.15 22 Troy Sait (Bendigo & District CC) 20.57 23 Clive Madder (Brunswick CC) 25.44 24 John Lokan (Mildura-Coomealla) 26.02 25 Malcolm Clayton (Ararat & District CC) 26.31 26 Matt Janssen (Norwood CC) 27.25 27 Tom Barry (MTBA) 32.27 28 Stuart Pratt (Mt Gambier CC) 38.05 29 Ron Petersen (Chelsea & Peninsula CC) 39.09 30 Greg Gillard (Coburg CC) 39.32 31 Chris Hitchen (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 39.55 32 Douglas Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 54.53 33 Howard Bartlett (Mt Gambier CC) 58.49 34 Matthew Reynolds (Blackburn CC) 1.21.36
