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Tour of the Southern Grampians - NE
Australia, April 14-15, 2007
Main Page Results Overall standings Next Stage
Stage 1 - April 14: Coleraine, 119km
First blood to Shaw
By David Tozer
The 2007 edition of the Great Doherty Coleraine Cycle Tour had the weight of expectation on its shoulders. The previous three editions of the race had progressively improved as far as depth of fields and standards of racing. However the race organisers would be content with the knowledge that this year's race was the biggest and best ever.
There was no question that the 250 plus riders entered ensured that numerically, this edition was superior but the introduction of a revised race format also added to the stature of the event. The four stages comprised the Queen stage of 120 kilometres and numerous categorised and non-categorised climbs, a short four kilometre hill climb individual time trial, a hilly 93 kilometre road stage and a 37 kilometre (25 lap) criterium.
It may have been that the hill climb time trial was introduced in order to separate the placegetters but this was not the case as the battle for the overall victory once again came down to intermediate sprints in the final stage criterium.
Pre-race favourite and current Australian Open Champion Darren Lapthorne had a strong Drapac Porsche team to assist in his efforts to continue his stellar year. His main competitors were seen to be Jason Hegert (FRF Couriers), who was trying to score back-to-back victories. Craig McCartney and Wil Dickeson (Savings & Loans) would also be looking to put a cat amongst the pigeons with the help of the well drilled team. Other contenders were Pat Shaw and Nick Walker (Victorian Institute of Sport), Sean Finning (South Australia.com) and Mark O'Brien, the 2005 Tour winner.
The course profile of stage 1 did not truly reflect the amount of climbing that was squeezed into the 119.3 kilometres. The peloton took a circumspect approach with attacks being covered by the riders from VIS, Drapac and Savings & Loans. Most riders were aware that eventually the right mix of riders would form a working party that would be given latitude by the peleton. This selection occurred at around 15 kilometres into the race. Pat Shaw (VIS) and Mark O'Brien (Drapac) lead a brave bunch in pursuit of a tour wining time gap. Also in the break were Nathan Wise (SHM), Tom Middleton (Norwood) and Andrew Ward (Ballarat City Cycles).
The group quickly raced out to a two minute gap, attacks off the front of the peleton were well controlled be the VIS and Drapac squads. Lapthorne and McCartney were lively in their efforts to get across to the break away but the rest of the peleton knew that if these two escaped it would be the end of the tour for the rest.
The warm northerly breeze started to play a part in the race as the stage progressed. It was as if the increase in temperature related directly to the dwindling number of riders in the main peleton. However the main pack was obliterated during the second ascention of the major climb of the stage (this climb had to be made four times during the stage). Whilst for most any thoughts of a high stage or overall finish had disintergrated a small group including Lapthorne, McCartney and Walker set off in an attempt to catch the breakaway.
In the end the break managed to maintain a solid one minute and 20 second advantage of the chasers, Pat Shaw won a last gasp sprint ahead of Mark O'Brien with Nathan Wise scoring a gutsy third place. The question was, would that time gap be enough to protect over the next three stages?
Results
1 Patrick Shaw (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 3.12.01 2 Mark O'Brien (Horsham CC) 3 Nathan Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 4 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 0.04 5 Andrew Ward (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 0.34 6 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 1.21 7 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 1.30 8 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn CC) 1.44 9 Craig McCartney (Geelong CC) 2.01 10 Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) 11 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.06 12 Lachlan Stewart (Ararat & Districts CC) 3.11 13 Tim Decker (Bendigo & District CC) 6.19 14 Danny Kah (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 15 Sean Finning (Castlemaine CC) 12.40 16 Jason Hegert (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 13.19 17 Jay Phillpotts (Hawthorn CC) 18 Damien Turner (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 19 Kyle Marwood (Bendigo & District CC) 20 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 21 Peter Smith (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 22 Ryan Moody (Geelong CC) 23 Alexander Machin (Wangaratta CC) 24 Brett Perez (St Kilda CC) 25 Trent Stevenson (Shepparton CC) 14.00 26 Daniel Thorsen (Shepparton CC) 16.06 27 Will Wettenhall (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 28 Jacob Lea (Bendigo & District CC) 29 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 30 Brendan Schultz (Hamilton CC) 31 Kym Howard (Adelaide CC) 32 Benjamin Juzwin (St Kilda CC) 33 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 17.57 34 Reece Stephens (St Kilda CC) 21.00 35 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 26.05 36 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 31.34 37 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 38 Russell Gill (Norwood CC) 39 Peter Braunsteins (Hawthorn CC) 40 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 41.01 41 Shane Miller (Hawthorn CC) 42 Tom Southam (UK) 1.00.41 43 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) 44 Bradley Norton (Shepparton CC) DNF Shaun McCarthy (Bendigo & District CC) DNF Christian Macdonald (Cobram-Barooga CC) DNF Daryl Burns (MTBA) DNS Leigh Egan (Shepparton CC) DNS Matthew Jensen (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) DNS Peter Barnett (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) DNS Alexander Smyth (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) DNS Mark Hooper (Geelong CC) DNS Brad Edmunds (Echuca/Moama CC) General classification after stage 1 1 Patrick Shaw (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 3.11.38 2 Mark O'Brien (Horsham CC) 0.05 3 Nathan Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.08 4 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 0.22 5 Andrew Ward (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 0.55 6 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 1.44 7 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 1.53 8 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn CC) 2.07 9 Craig McCartney (Geelong CC) 2.24 10 Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) 11 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.29 12 Lachlan Stewart (Ararat & Districts CC) 3.34 13 Danny Kah (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 6.42 14 Tim Decker (Bendigo & District CC) 15 Sean Finning (Castlemaine CC) 13.03 16 Jason Hegert (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 13.42 17 Damien Turner (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 18 Jay Phillpotts (Hawthorn CC) 19 Kyle Marwood (Bendigo & District CC) 20 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 21 Ryan Moody (Geelong CC) 22 Alexander Machin (Wangaratta CC) 23 Peter Smith (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 24 Brett Perez (St Kilda CC) 25 Trent Stevenson (Shepparton CC) 14.23 26 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 16.29 27 Brendan Schultz (Hamilton CC) 28 Jacob Lea (Bendigo & District CC) 29 Benjamin Juzwin (St Kilda CC) 30 Will Wettenhall (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 31 Kym Howard (Adelaide CC) 32 Daniel Thorsen (Shepparton CC) 33 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 18.20 34 Reece Stephens (St Kilda CC) 21.23 35 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 26.28 36 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 31.57 37 Peter Braunsteins (Hawthorn CC) 38 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 39 Russell Gill (Norwood CC) 40 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 41.24 41 Shane Miller (Hawthorn CC) 42 Tom Southam (UK) 1.01.02 43 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) 1.01.04 44 Bradley Norton (Shepparton CC)
