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Tour of the Southern Grampians - NE
Australia, April 14-15, 2007
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Stage 3 - April 15: Coleraine, 93km
Finning takes the honours as Lapthorne crashes out
By David Tozer
Sunday morning brought cooler conditions but the racing remained white hot. With the National Champion moving into third overall thanks to his amazing time trial efforts, there was an air of expectation that Drapac would dominate proceedings with two riders chasing the vulnerable Pat Shaw in the race for overall honours.
Once again a small group managed to gap the field in the early part of the stage, included in the group were; Sean Finning, Kyle Marwood (Decked Out Coaching), Will Dickeson and Damian Turner (Ballarat City Cycles). Rather than having a representative in the break, Drapac and VIS decided to control proceedings with the help of some tempo riding from the SHM team who were protecting Nathan Wise's strong overall standing. None of the riders in the break posed a serious threat to overall.
It was with around 20 kilometres to travel that the most dramatic event of the tour took place. While attempting to escape the peloton a group of four riders were driving hard at around 45 kilometres per hour when a touch of wheels caused Darren Lapthorne to hit the bitumen. Fortunately chasing riders had a few seconds to avoid the green and gold clad Lapthorne but the speed at which the crash occurred and the delay in Lapthorne getting up off the road sent a shiver of concern through the A Grade bunch. As is customary, racing was neutralised by the peloton to allow Lapthorne to re-intergrate. Unfortunately a message was conveyed that the Australian Champ was unable to continue and the race would have to continue without him.
After a couple of minutes of confusion racing resumed with riders from SHM and VIS moving to the front and set about the task of reeling in the break. Their efforts were rewarded as the small escape pack came into view in the last five kilometres. Mark O'Brien had attempted several late attacks to try to shake loose from the ever watchful Pat Shaw. The battle between the two young guns was entertaining both riders seem to enjoy the Tour of Coleraine and neither was willing to relent. At this late stage in the tour only one second separated the two champions.
The riders protecting the GC seemed to shut down the chase for the breakaway as the peloton sped into Coleraine. Their job had been done. This allowed the sprinters in the breakaway to fight it out. Kyle Marwood and Sean Finning have probably had many opportunities to go head to head. Both riders grew up in the Bendigo-Castlemaine region. This time it was the more experienced Finning who took line honours in front of Marwood with all rounder Will Dickeson taking third.
Results
1 Sean Finning (Castlemaine CC) 2.30.55 2 Kyle Marwood (Bendigo & District CC) 3 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 4 Damien Turner (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 5 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) 6 Jason Hegert (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 7 Mark O'Brien (Horsham CC) 8 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 9 Reece Stephens (St Kilda CC) 10 Patrick Shaw (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 11 Craig McCartney (Geelong CC) 12 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 13 Lachlan Stewart (Ararat & Districts CC) 14 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn CC) 15 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 16 Russell Gill (Norwood CC) 17 Jay Phillpotts (Hawthorn CC) 18 Trent Stevenson (Shepparton CC) 19 Andrew Ward (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 20 Jacob Lea (Bendigo & District CC) 21 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 22 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 23 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 24 Nathan Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 25 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 26 Danny Kah (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 27 Ryan Moody (Geelong CC) 28 Brendan Schultz (Hamilton CC) 29 Peter Braunsteins (Hawthorn CC) 30 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 31 Benjamin Juzwin (St Kilda CC) 32 Alexander Machin (Wangaratta CC) 7.03 33 Brett Perez (St Kilda CC) 7.04 34 Bradley Norton (Shepparton CC) 8.58 35 Will Wettenhall (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 36 Peter Smith (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 37 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 24.57 38 Kym Howard (Adelaide CC) DNF Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) DNF Steven Robb (Brunswick CC) DNF Daniel Thorsen (Shepparton CC) DNF Tom Southam (UK) General classification after stage 3 1 Patrick Shaw (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 5.49.34 2 Mark O'Brien (Horsham CC) 0.01 3 Nathan Wise (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 0.49 4 Tom Middleton (Norwood CC) 1.13 5 Andrew Ward (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 1.28 6 Nicholas Walker (Brunswick CC) 1.33 7 Jonathan Lovelock (Hawthorn CC) 2.18 8 Craig McCartney (Geelong CC) 2.24 9 Michael Gallagher (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 2.50 10 Lachlan Stewart (Ararat & Districts CC) 3.38 11 Danny Kah (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 7.32 12 Sean Finning (Castlemaine CC) 13.33 13 Jason Hegert (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 13.58 14 Damien Turner (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 14.00 15 Jay Phillpotts (Hawthorn CC) 14.15 16 Kyle Marwood (Bendigo & District CC) 14.24 17 Aidan McInerney (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 14.30 18 Ryan Moody (Geelong CC) 15.05 19 Trent Stevenson (Shepparton CC) 15.06 20 Chris Steffanoni (Sunbury & Hume Districts CC) 17.10 21 Brendan Schultz (Hamilton CC) 17.12 22 Jacob Lea (Bendigo & District CC) 17.24 23 Benjamin Juzwin (St Kilda CC) 17.26 24 David Tozer (Port Fairy CC) 20.16 25 Alexander Machin (Wangaratta CC) 21.39 26 Reece Stephens (St Kilda CC) 22.31 27 Peter Smith (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 24.02 28 Brett Perez (St Kilda CC) 24.03 29 Darren Lapthorne (Coburg CC) 26.25 30 Will Wettenhall (Ballarat-Sebastopol CC) 26.27 31 Matthew Sherwin (Caulfield-Carnegie CC) 27.43 32 Simon Pearson (Norwood CC) 32.36 33 Peter Braunsteins (Hawthorn CC) 32.52 34 Will Dickeson (Sturt Holdfast Marion CC) 33.32 35 Russell Gill (Norwood CC) 34.05 36 Kym Howard (Adelaide CC) 42.19 37 Pip Grinter (Bendigo & District CC) 1.01.19 38 Marcus Wettenhall (Geelong CC) 1.07.10 39 Bradley Norton (Shepparton CC) 1.11.04
