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Timbercorp Cup Tour of the Murray River - NE
Australia, August 26-September 2, 2007
Main Page Results Overall standings Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 11 - September 1: Loxton criterium, 42 km
McDonald tightens grip on GC
By Rod Morris in Loxton (Sa)
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The best win to show cycling supporters that is a deserved leader of the tour was to win a stage and that's exactly what Peter McDonald did at Loxton. In the history making first ever Tour of the Murray River stage race in South Australia, McDonald won a tough 42-kilometre criterium around a picturesque circuit. The 28 year-old Sydneysider extended his overall lead from 25 seconds to Grant Irwin and 33 seconds to Patrick Shaw to a commanding 1.33 minute and 1'41" minute respectively.
"I feel a lot more comfortable now, I can almost start to think that I can win this tour," he said modestly. With an afternoon kermesse to be raced in Loxton and the grand finale – another kermesse – in Waikerie on Sunday, McDonald only has to stay upright for the closing 114 kilometres to be declared the tour champion. McDonald originally did not intend to race the Murray River event, which is the third of four legs of the Timbercorp Cup, which he is also leading by 13 points from Irwin.
After winning the criterium race at the recent Australian Cycling Grand Prix at Ballarat, McDonald declared that the Murray River tour would be too flat and fast for him, given his background as a noted climber. But he was cajoled into racing by tour promoter John Craven and he hasn't looked back since. McDonald won the second stage from Moama to Barham last Sunday, which moved him into the coveted leader's yellow jersey and he has successfully defended it since.
"Its been hard on some days and others its been fairly easy," he said. "Today was enjoyable, I liked that raced." The Loxton circuit included a steady climb towards the finish line, with riders forced to ascend 30 times. "That circuit suited me to a tee," McDonald said.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com
- Well riders do like their coffee… Tour leader Peter McDonald (NSWIS/FRF) in Loxton
- Benjamin King (WAIS) corners in Loxton during stage ten and holds a top ten placing on the GC
- Daniel Furmston (Praties) lies 30th overall on the GC some 29"16' behind Tour leader Peter McDonald
- Heads down as a break gets away from the peloton during the 42km criterium in Loxton
- The peloton on a climb towards the home-straight and in search of a leading group
- Peter McDonald (NSWIS/FRF) in the Tour leader's yellow jersey gets ready to attack the peloton
- Riders in the main bunch let the yellow jersey slip up the road and bridge the gap to the leaders
- Peter McDonald (NSWIS/FRF) and Jack Bobridge (SAIS) bridging the gap to the leading group
- Peter McDonald (NSWIS/FRF) drives the lead group consisting of Brendon Sharratt (Ballarat City Cycles), Jack Bobridge (SAIS), and Sean Finning (SouthAustralia.com/AIS)
- Peter McDonald (NSWIS/FRF) takes out another stage of the Tour and increases his lead over his rivals on the GC
- The stage eleven podium (L-R): Jack Bobridge 2nd (SAIS), Peter McDonald 1st (NSWIS/FRF), and Sean Finning 3rd (SouthAustralia.com/AIS)
- Brendon Sharratt (Ballarat City Cycles) was awarded the MADEC Most Aggressive rider of the stage jersey
Results
1 Peter McDonald 1.04.01 (39.36 km/h) 2 Jack Bobridge 3 Sean Finning 4 Brendon Sharratt 5 Robert Cater 0.44 6 Russell Gill 7 Nicholas Sanderson 8 Miles Watson 9 Patrick Shaw 10 Daniel Braunsteins 11 Grant Irwin 12 Jarrod Harman 13 David Kemp 14 Leigh Howard 15 John Ebeling 16 Cameron Hughes 17 Matt Sillars 18 Tom Middleton 19 Benjamin King 20 Peter Smith 21 Darcy Rosenlund 22 Tony Mann 23 Chris Jory 24 Brad Edmunds 25 Peter Dawson 1.03 26 David Tozer 1.05 27 Brendan Jones 1.09 28 Matt King 29 Nathan Wise 2.31 30 Shaun Higgerson 2.33 31 Miles Olman 32 Matthew Sherwin 33 Travis Frisby 34 Brendan Schultz 4.42 35 Glen Peterson 36 Gilbert Gutowski 37 Jason Hegert 38 Nigel Sullivan 39 Chris Steffanoni 40 Michael Stallard 41 Ben Mather 42 Craig Robertson 43 Samuel Rix 6.51 44 Stephen Price 45 Will Dickeson 46 Re Meneaud-Young 47 Douglas Repacholi 48 Will Wettenhall 49 Grant Webster 50 David Pell 51 Simon Brown 52 Gavin Nicholls 53 Daniel McCulloch 54 Brett Aitken 55 Hayden Josefski 56 Daniel Furmston 57 Lachlan Stewart 58 Thomas Baxter 59 Vaughan Bowman 60 Jeremy Hills 9.00 61 Luke Aggett 62 Gary Mueller 63 Peter Milostic 11.09 DNS Jacob Lea DNS Evan Corry DNS Timothy Decker DNS Steven Robb Sprints Lap 6 1 David Pell 3 pts 2 Peter McDonald 2 3 David Kemp 1 Lap 8 1 Chris Jory 3 pts 2 Brendon Sharratt 2 3 Sean Finning 1 Lap 10 1 Chris Jory 3 pts 2 Brendon Sharratt 2 3 Sean Finning 1 Lap 12 1 Chris Jory 3 pts 2 Brendon Sharratt 2 3 Sean Finning 1 Lap 14 1 Chris Jory 3 pts 2 Brendon Sharratt 2 3 Brendan Jones 1 Lap 16 1 Brendan Jones 3 pts 2 Brendon Sharratt 2 3 Chris Jory 1 Lap 18 1 Brendan Jones 3 pts 2 Brendon Sharratt 2 3 Chris Jory 1 Lap 20 1 Peter McDonald 3 pts 2 Jack Bobridge 2 3 Brendan Jones 1 Lap 22 1 Peter McDonald 3 pts 2 Jack Bobridge 2 3 Sean Finning 1 Lap 24 1 Peter McDonald 3 pts 2 Jack Bobridge 2 3 Sean Finning 1 Lap 26 1 Peter McDonald 3 pts 2 Jack Bobridge 2 3 Brendon Sharratt 1 Criterium championships 1 Peter McDonald 10 pts 2 Jack Bobridge 9 3 Sean Finning 8 4 Brendon Sharratt 7 5 Robert Cater 6 6 Russell Gill 5 7 Nicholas Sanderson 4 8 Miles Watson 3 9 Patrick Shaw 2 10 Daniel Braunsteins 1 Most aggressive rider 1 Brendon Sharratt 2 pts General classification after stage 11 1 Peter McDonald 14.56.23 2 Jack Bobridge 1.27 3 Grant Irwin 1.33 4 Patrick Shaw 1.40 5 Cameron Hughes 1.47 6 David Kemp 1.55 7 Benjamin King 1.59 8 Leigh Howard 2.09 9 Tom Middleton 2.28 10 John Ebeling 2.29 11 Miles Watson 6.38 12 Brad Edmunds 11.08 13 David Pell 11.40 14 Nicholas Sanderson 11.44 15 Peter Dawson 13.27 16 Darcy Rosenlund 14.10 17 Tony Mann 16.33 18 Miles Olman 21.14 19 Michael Stallard 21.50 20 Robert Cater 23.11 21 Gavin Nicholls 23.17 22 Hayden Josefski 25.25 23 Gilbert Gutowski 25.37 24 Daniel McCulloch 28.12 25 Jarrod Harman 28.26 26 Chris Jory 30.57 27 Chris Steffanoni 31.39 28 Matt King 32.03 29 David Tozer 34.55 30 Brendan Schultz 35.29 31 Ben Mather 36.14 32 Daniel Furmston 36.31 33 Matt Sillars 38.20 34 Will Dickeson 38.54 35 Shaun Higgerson 39.17 36 Peter Milostic 40.53 37 Daniel Braunsteins 41.37 38 Russell Gill 42.44 39 Craig Robertson 42.48 40 Brett Aitken 44.08 41 Lachlan Stewart 44.12 42 Sean Finning 44.35 43 Nathan Wise 45.44 44 Douglas Repacholi 46.18 45 Samuel Rix 48.58 46 Peter Smith 49.51 47 Matthew Sherwin 49.54 48 Jason Hegert 51.15 49 Glen Peterson 52.05 50 Luke Aggett 54.48 51 Re Meneaud-Young 57.08 52 Gary Mueller 57.10 53 Travis Frisby 58.19 54 Will Wettenhall 1.03.32 55 Brendan Jones 1.08.52 56 Nigel Sullivan 1.10.04 57 Thomas Baxter 1.16.37 58 Vaughan Bowman 1.20.35 59 Stephen Price 1.21.32 60 Grant Webster 1.31.10 61 Brendon Sharratt 1.45.10 62 Simon Brown 1.46.16 63 Jeremy Hills 2.27.39 Sprints classification 1 Miles Watson 106 pts 2 Peter McDonald 60 3 Darcy Rosenlund 46 4 David Pell 37 5 Patrick Shaw 37 6 Sean Finning 35 7 Benjamin King 31 8 Brendon Sharratt 28 9 Peter Dawson 23 10 Cameron Hughes 20 11 Robert Cater 19 12 Jack Bobridge 17 13 Grant Irwin 17 14 Chris Jory 14 15 Brad Edmunds 13 16 Brendan Jones 9 17 Nathan Wise 9 18 Tony Mann 7 19 Leigh Howard 7 20 John Ebeling 5 21 Daniel Furmston 5 22 Gilbert Gutowski 5 23 Michael Stallard 4 24 David Kemp 4 25 Lachlan Stewart 2 26 Matthew Sherwin 2 27 Gavin Nicholls 2 28 Vaughan Bowman 2 29 Shaun Higgerson 1 30 David Tozer 1 31 Miles Olman 1 32 Tom Middleton 1 33 Chris Steffanoni 1 34 Daniel McCulloch 1 35 Will Dickeson 1 36 Matt Sillars 1 Mountains classification 1 Miles Olman 9 pts 2 Daniel Furmston 8 3 David Kemp 6 4 Tony Mann 5 5 Gilbert Gutowski 3 6 Nathan Wise 2 7 Daniel Braunsteins 2 8 Benjamin King 2 9 Darcy Rosenlund 2 10 Miles Watson 1 11 Patrick Shaw 1 Criterium championships classification 1 Grant Irwin 34 pts 2 Nicholas Sanderson 25 3 Robert Cater 25 4 Miles Watson 23 5 Patrick Shaw 22 6 Peter McDonald 21 7 Peter Dawson 20 8 Leigh Howard 18 9 Sean Finning 18 10 Russell Gill 17 11 Gary Mueller 17 12 Brett Aitken 13 13 Jack Bobridge 12 14 Douglas Repacholi 12 15 Darcy Rosenlund 12 16 Brendon Sharratt 10 17 Tony Mann 8 18 Cameron Hughes 8 19 Jarrod Harman 7 20 David Pell 7 21 David Kemp 6 22 Matt King 5 23 John Ebeling 4 24 Michael Stallard 4 25 Peter Smith 4 26 Miles Olman 3 27 Tom Middleton 3 28 Will Dickeson 1 29 Daniel Braunsteins 1 30 Matthew Sherwin 1 31 Nathan Wise 1 Most aggressive rider classification 1 David Pell 2 pts 2 Peter Smith 2 3 Brendon Sharratt 2 4 Miles Watson 2 5 Cameron Hughes 2 6 Miles Olman 2 7 Sean Finning 2 8 Peter McDonald 2
