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Tattersall's Cup Tour of the Murray River - NE
Australia, August 29-September 3, 2006
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Stage 3 - August 30: Kerang criterium, 33 km
McLachlan & Aitken share second day spoils
By Rod Morris
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The Subaru Tour of the Murray River has quickly turned into a veteran's affair with Brett Aitken (SA), Robert McLachlan (ACT) and Leigh Egan (Vic) completing three trifectas in the first four stages.
As the six day - 11-stage - tour moved from Echuca to Kerang and Cohuna in Victoria's North-West, Aitken, McLachlan and Egan hogged the limelight, just as they had done on day one, although Toowoomba rider David Kemp maintained his grip on the leader's yellow jersey, despite not yet winning a stage.
Aitken, McLachlan and Egan have a combined age of 109, but so far they have shown the young bucks a flashing pair pedals in every stage.
Aitken, a hero of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when he teamed with Scott McGrory, won the morning's criterium in Kerang in his usual fast finishing style and despite declaring he wasn't going to be a threat in the road stages, was only just pipped on the line in the afternoon's 74.7 km race from Kerang to Cohuna by McLachlan, who has now been on the podium in all four stages of the tour, which is the third leg of the Tattersall's Cup series.
Kemp's consistency has been rewarded by the yellow jersey, although his lead has been slashed to just three seconds from McLachlan and little known NSW rider Joshua Marden, who is also leading in the sprinter's championship.
The second day was raced in brilliant sunshine in Victoria and on a 1.1 km flat circuit, the Kerang Criterium was always going to come down to who could sprint the quickest.
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Breakaways were continually reeled and for the leader's in the general classification, their every move was being monitored by their challengers. Marden, Casey Munro, Zakkari Dempster and Sean Finning pinched the early sprint points on offer, while Craig Mackie and Marcus Wettenhall also chipped in when it counted.
Riders hit an average speed of more than 43 kph for the 30 lap race and in a hectic long straight finish, it came down to the sprinters.
Aitken is regarded one of Australia's best in this sort of situation, but he still had to pick the right line and time for his final lunge.
"I got a near perfect lead but I knew I still had to hold off Robbie (McLachlan) and Leigh (Egan)," he said.
"I knew they would be coming after me, so it was a matter of head down and backside up and give it everything I had."
Both McLachlan and Egan accepted defeat graciously, acknowledging Aitken's special talent.
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"He is such a hard to rider to beat in a sprint like, if he get's the right line, then not too many people are going to stop him," McLachlan said.
The race within the race, ie: the sprint championship saw Marden and Kemp draw level on 23 points, but the distinctive green jersey was awarded to the New South Welshman, because of more overall sprint wins.
Kemp was unruffled, declaring his intentions quite openly.
"I want to preserve this yellow leader's jersey," he stated.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com
- Riders swing round beneath the Royal Hotel in Kerang for the stage three 30.6km criterium
- The field makes its way down the back straight in Kerang where riders had to complete 30 laps of a 1.1km circuit
- The field on the back streets of Kerang on a warm day in North Western Victoria
- Over one hundred riders are competing in the 2006 Subaru Tour of the Murray River
- James Robinson from Victoria autographs race programmes for some local youngsters
- Brett Aitken (L) is about to spread his wings and take out the stage three criterium in Kerang
- Stage winner Brett Aitken is looking to improve his fitness and ride in the up-coming Herald Sun Tour
- The stage three podium (L-R): Leigh Egan (2nd), Brett Aitken (1st), and Robert McLachlan (3rd)
- Joshua Marden tries on his Road Safe Mildura Sprint Championship leader's jersey
- Brett Aitken is the current leader of the Telstra Country-Wide Criterium Championship
- David Kemp in yellow as tour leader and holding down a five second lead after three stages
- Tour commentator John Holland gets the thumbs-up for his expert comments behind the microphone
Results
Stage 3 43.64 Km/Hr 1 Brett Aitken 45.22 (43.64 Km/Hr) 2 Leigh Egan 3 Robert McLachlan 4 Gary Mueller 5 Wesley Sulzberger 6 Daniel Furmston 7 David Kemp 8 Brendan Rowbotham 9 Joshua Marden 10 Darren Harry 11 Tim Hucker 12 Joe McDonnell 13 Chris Steffanoni 14 Kyle Marwood 15 Jeremy Bates 16 Brad Edmunds 17 Robert Cater 18 Marcus Wettenhall 19 Daniel Newnham 20 Peter Smith 21 Nicholas Walker 22 Luke Pledger 23 Nicholas Sanderson 24 Cameron Peterson 25 Peter Barnett 26 Peter McDonald 27 Michael Ford 28 Samuel Rix 29 Stuart Shaw 30 David Hiley 31 Jason Hegert 32 Peter Milostic 33 Brendan Hill 34 Craig McCartney 35 Jacob Sutherland 36 Ricky Peoples 37 Gilbert Gutowski 38 Patrick Shaw 39 Richie Porte 40 Stephen Cunningham 41 Zakkari Dempster 42 Brendan Brooks 43 Benjamin Juzwin 44 Matthew Davis 45 Jai Crawford 46 Christopher Wilding 47 Jarrod Harman 48 Fabio Calabria 49 Matthew Delahunty 50 Matthew Wood 51 Matthew Sherwin 52 Phillip Stokes 53 Scott Peoples 54 James Hannam 55 Will Wettenhall 56 Kym Howard 57 Adam Murchie 58 Chris Jongewaard 59 Peter Ladd 60 Johnnie Walker 61 Cameron Irwin 62 Timothy Decker 63 Glen Peterson 64 Matthew Jensen 65 Brett Franklin 66 Thomas Baxter 67 Simon Pearson 68 James Fitzgerald 69 Tom Middleton 70 Jack Anderson 71 Nigel Sullivan 72 Will Dickeson 73 Adrian Hanson 74 William Murray 75 Casey Munro 76 Andrew Ward 77 Nick Culvenor 78 Damon De Angelis 79 Mark O'Brien 80 Joshua Gundry 81 Jamie Kelly 82 Matthew Kennett 83 David Tozer 84 Peter Herzig 85 Tremain Permewan 86 Steven Pilson 87 Sean Finning 88 Simon Van Der Aa 89 Craig Mackie 0.16 90 Bradley Clark 91 Grant Webster 92 Daniel Burtt 93 Hamish Mackirdy 0.35 94 Damien Turner 1.31 95 James Kelly 4.33 96 James Robinson 6.04 97 Malcolm Hart Sprints End of Lap 6 1 Joshua Marden 3 pts 2 Gary Mueller 2 3 David Kemp 1 End of Lap 8 1 Casey Munro 3 pts 2 David Kemp 2 3 Joshua Marden 1 End of Lap 10 1 Zakkari Dempster 3 pts 2 David Kemp 2 3 Joe McDonnell 1 End of Lap 12 1 Sean Finning 3 pts 2 Patrick Shaw 2 3 Casey Munro 1 End of Lap 14 1 Casey Munro 3 pts 2 Patrick Shaw 2 3 Nicholas Sanderson 1 End of Lap 16 1 Joshua Marden 3 pts 2 Casey Munro 2 3 Joshua Gundry 1 End of Lap 18 1 Marcus Wettenhall 3 pts 2 Wesley Sulzberger 2 3 Peter McDonald 1 End of Lap 20 1 Craig Mackie 3 pts 2 Joshua Marden 2 3 David Kemp 1 End of Lap 22 1 Sean Finning 3 pts 2 Scott Peoples 2 3 Chris Steffanoni 1 End of Lap 24 1 Casey Munro 3 pts 2 Michael Ford 2 3 Patrick Shaw 1 End of Lap 26 1 Zakkari Dempster 3 pts 2 Johnnie Walker 2 3 Brendan Brooks 1 General classification after stage 3 1 David Kemp 3.47.20 2 Joshua Marden 0.05 3 Casey Munro 0.10 4 Robert McLachlan 0.11 5 Brad Edmunds 0.28 6 Stephen Cunningham 0.31 7 Sean Finning 0.32 8 Brendan Brooks 9 Peter Ladd 0.38 10 Kym Howard 11 Matthew Wood 0.39 12 Adam Murchie 0.45 13 Brett Aitken 1.48 14 Leigh Egan 1.54 15 Chris Jongewaard 1.57 16 Zakkari Dempster 1.58 17 Gary Mueller 1.59 18 Scott Peoples 19 Patrick Shaw 20 Wesley Sulzberger 2.00 21 Joe McDonnell 2.01 22 Johnnie Walker 2.02 23 Peter McDonald 24 Peter Barnett 2.04 25 Craig McCartney 26 Marcus Wettenhall 2.05 27 Samuel Rix 28 Jeremy Bates 29 Michael Ford 2.06 30 David Hiley 2.07 31 Kyle Marwood 32 Nicholas Walker 33 Chris Steffanoni 34 Joshua Gundry 35 Daniel Furmston 36 Nicholas Sanderson 37 Stuart Shaw 38 Robert Cater 39 Steven Pilson 2.08 40 Adrian Hanson 41 Christopher Wilding 42 Andrew Ward 43 Jason Hegert 44 David Tozer 45 Nigel Sullivan 46 Peter Smith 47 Matthew Sherwin 48 Brendan Rowbotham 49 Ricky Peoples 50 Daniel Newnham 51 Tom Middleton 52 Matthew Jensen 53 Tim Hucker 54 Brendan Hill 55 Jarrod Harman 56 Gilbert Gutowski 57 Matthew Delahunty 58 Matthew Davis 59 Nick Culvenor 60 Jack Anderson 61 Cameron Peterson 62 Timothy Decker 63 James Hannam 64 Richie Porte 65 Jai Crawford 66 Jacob Sutherland 67 Fabio Calabria 68 Will Dickeson 69 Mark O'Brien 70 Peter Milostic 71 Craig Mackie 2.21 72 Grant Webster 2.24 73 Bradley Clark 74 Daniel Burtt 75 Phillip Stokes 3.18 76 Luke Pledger 77 Glen Peterson 78 Matthew Kennett 79 Jamie Kelly 80 Darren Harry 81 Brett Franklin 82 Thomas Baxter 83 Simon Pearson 84 Damien Turner 3.39 85 Will Wettenhall 4.28 86 Tremain Permewan 87 Cameron Irwin 88 Damon De Angelis 89 William Murray 5.38 90 Benjamin Juzwin 91 James Fitzgerald 92 Hamish Mackirdy 6.13 93 James Kelly 10.11 94 James Robinson 10.32 95 Malcolm Hart 11.42 96 Peter Herzig 20.13 97 Simon Van Der Aa 20.52 Aggressive Rider Awards 1 Brad Edmunds 50 pts 2 Peter Barnett 50 Sprint classification 1 Joshua Marden 23 pts 2 David Kemp 23 3 Casey Munro 17 4 Brad Edmunds 11 5 Chris Jongewaard 11 6 Zakkari Dempster 10 7 Scott Peoples 9 8 Patrick Shaw 9 9 Joe McDonnell 7 10 Sean Finning 6 11 Peter McDonald 6 12 Johnnie Walker 6 13 Gary Mueller 5 14 Craig McCartney 4 15 Peter Barnett 4 16 Wesley Sulzberger 4 17 Marcus Wettenhall 3 18 Jeremy Bates 3 19 Samuel Rix 3 20 Craig Mackie 3 21 Michael Ford 2 22 Nicholas Walker 1 23 Chris Steffanoni 1 24 Joshua Gundry 1 25 Nicholas Sanderson 1 26 David Hiley 1 27 Robert Cater 1 28 Stuart Shaw 1 29 Kyle Marwood 1 30 Brendan Brooks 1 Mountains classification 1 Casey Munro 6 pts 2 Brad Edmunds 4 3 Matthew Wood 1 4 Brendan Brooks 1 Criterium classification 1 Brett Aitken 20 pts 2 Leigh Egan 17 3 Robert McLachlan 17 4 Wesley Sulzberger 12 5 David Kemp 11 6 Joshua Marden 7 7 Gary Mueller 7 8 Daniel Furmston 5 9 Robert Cater 4 10 Brendan Rowbotham 3 11 Jeremy Bates 3 12 Nicholas Sanderson 2 13 Darren Harry 1 14 Brad Edmunds 1
