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Tour of the Southern Grampians - NE
Australia, April 9-10, 2005
Stage 1 - April 9: Coleraine, 75km
Stage 1 was underway just after 9.00am Saturday morning; the route included one King of the Mountain with some tough terrain. On paper this looked to be a nice starter but the course description made no mention of the 30 degree heat and howling northerly wind. Any thoughts of an easy beginning were crushed as the race turned in a south westerley direction (about 20 kilometres into the stage). The GC contenders seemed to know what was coming and made sure that they were at the pointy end of the field, riders from the Decked Out team appeared to be dictating the terms with experienced riders in Tim Decker and Leigh Egan providing direction for the up and coming Mark O'Brien and Scott Peoples. With the road at only half a dozen metres in width at times meant multiple echelons were the order of the day or spend a lot of time riding alone.
The rest of the peleton scrambled to latch on to the front runners, all but a handful failed to hang on. From this point the pack of almost 50 riders that had begun as one had splintered into five or six small groups in what resembled a handicap race in reverse. The lead riders edged further and further away as the hopes of the rest of the field vanished as quickly as the leaves and branches were being blown by the relentless northerly breeze.
Fifteen riders had made the selection, this must have been too many for Pollock who decided to cause a further selection on the K.O.M. Five riders managed to follow, this decisive break framed the contenders for the overall General Classification; Pollock, O'Brien, Bradford, Shaw, Peoples and Zak Dempster (Drapac) would stay away on stage one and drive a wedge of almost a minute between themselves and the next group of nine riders. Rhys Pollock continued to dominate the stage managing to overpower the group and finish six seconds in front of O'Brien and a further 15 seconds ahead of Bradford.
Results
Stage 1 A Grade 1 Rhys Pollock 1.50.58 2 Mark O'Brien 0.06 3 Chris Bradford 0.21 4 Patrick Shaw 0.36 5 Zak Dempster 6 Scott Peoples 0.39 7 Trent Stevenson 1.43 8 Andy Graham 1.50 9 Mitchell Docker 10 Jason Hegert 11 Casey Munro 12 Johnny Walker 13 Craig McCartney 14 Tim Decker 15 Leigh Egan 16 John Mackenzie 4.53 17 Peter Ladd 18 Dylan Newell 5.06 19 Sam Bach 20 David Tozer 21 Ben Edwards 8.00 22 James Pugh 23 Josh Akarsu 24 Gerard Murphy 25 Steven Robb 8.42 26 Cameron Lester 9.42 27 Ross Bate 10.19 28 Chris D'Amelio 29 Geordan Murray 30 Bradley Norton 31 Ashley Hayat 32 Mario Giramondo 33 Yvor Bucek 34 Brian McNamara 35 Adam Murchie 36 Daniel Nelms 10.52 37 Michael Ford 19.07 38 Daniel Thorsen 39 Andrew Ward 40 Russell Gill 41 Nathan Wise 42 Jake Sutherland 43 Travis Hull 44 Craig Johnson 45 Jade Frankel 26.14 46 Heath Keenan 28.27 DNF Kel Macculloch DNF Kyle Marwood DNF Chris Eichler B Grade 1 Reece Van Beek 2.07.22 2 Nathan Masters 3 James Timmer-Arends 0.19 4 Nick Culvenor 0.21 5 Andrew Cochrane 0.23 6 Cameron Winton 7 Scott Brown 0.24 8 Nick Walker 0.26 9 Noel Tanner 10 Michael Forbes 11 Brenton Logan 12 Kym Howard 13 Alexander Smyth 14 Adrian Hanson 15 Pete Knight 16 Aaron Christensen 1.05 17 Joshua Morrison 18 Gordon Shaw 1.19 19 Matthew Kane 20 Michael Hartman 21 Ryan Bilszta 1.53 22 Dean Griffin 23 Ryan Mannix 24 Grant Jamieson 3.48 25 Richard Cormick 6.51 26 Adam Mulford 7.35 27 Wayne Collins 7.39 28 Ed Knowles 29 Matthew Oppermann 30 Glenn Taylor 12.28 31 Robert Gaggini 13.26 32 Paul Kelly 14.48 33 Daniel Smidts 34 Adrian Wilson 16.31 Did not Finish Robert Mann Christopher Lee Lee Robinson Andrew Robinson C Grade 1 Cameron Wall 2.09.02 2 Doug Reynolds 0.04 3 Michael Gallagher 0.05 4 Garry Polack 0.10 5 Steve Pilson 0.15 6 John Marcan 6.15 7 Tom McDonough 8 Michael Burke 9 Kurt Jensen 10 Geoff Pyman 7.12 11 Fraser Short 7.32 12 Joel Watson 13 Jonathan King 9.59 14 Scott Jensen 15 John Groves 10.54 16 Wayne Evans 11.33 17 Darren Shelden 18 Anthony Regis 13.13 19 Sean Hurley 20 Peter Bice 21 Andrew Dorman 22 Stewart Denmead 13.35 23 Giancarlo Modulon 24 Jonathan Claydon 16.30 25 Craig Van Der Valk 17.13 26 Luke Hanley 21.02 27 Christine Foster 23.22 28 Rick Reynolds 24.53 29 Matthew Sherwin 29.53 30 Steve Peterson Did not Finish Tom Baxter Brendan Schultz Tim Clarke Nick Panou Matthew Ladner Trevor Key D Grade 1 Paul Nolte 1.03.30 2 Peter McDonough 0.05 3 Peter Ladd 0.08 4 Stephen Mutch 0.11 5 Colin Angus 0.44 6 Tim White 0.46 7 Peter Doody 8 Orazio Lo Castro 9 Alex Brewer 10 Gerard O'Brien 11 John Lehner 12 Roland Evans 1.24 13 Greg Gillard 2.57 14 John Lokan 4.08 15 David Herrewyn 4.58 16 Tom Probert 17 Andrew Cullen 5.09 18 Karen Sawyer 19 Liana Potter 20 Wayne Gebert 6.24 21 Andres Rojas 7.37 22 Trudy Bell 23 Chris Hitchen 10.26 24 Michael Osborne 10.46 25 Peter Barker 13.15 26 Malcolm Clayton 27 Tahlia Clayton 28 Kym Peterson 29 Howard Bartlett 20.11 30 Paul Lajbcygier 20.38 DNF Bradley Herrewyn
