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Jayco Tour of Tasmania - NE

Australia, August 17-21, 2005

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Stage 2 - August 17: Grindelwald - Bridport, 93.9 km

Higgerson impresses on day 1

By Rod Morris in Bridport

Shaun Higgerson
Photo ©: Shane Goss
Click for larger image

Last week, Shaun Higgerson was stacking shelves in a suburban Sydney supermarket. Now he carries the yellow leader's jersey in the prestigious Tattersall's Cup Jayco Tour of Tasmania. Higgerson (20) was a surprise winner of today's opening stage of the nine race tour from Launceston the picturesque Swiss-like village of Grindelwald and then to prove it was no fluke, finished fifth in the afternoon stage from Grindelwald to Bridport, 94 km away.

Higgerson will carry a slender 8-second lead into tomorrow's third and fourth stages, which include a criterium in the North-East township of Scottsdale and then an afternoon 41 km sprint from Scottsdale to nearby Lilydale. The Sutherland rider has not ridden seriously since returning from the Tour of Korea in May.

"I've hardly been on the bike for three months apart from a little training, so I was not expecting to win a race here," Higgerson said. "I've been working in a local supermarket back home to earn a few dollars so I can get to races like these. I had hoped to ride in America at Superweek, but the deal fell through, so there's hasn't been any racing for me," he added.

Higgerson was a member of a six man breakaway group that opened up a gap of almost two minutes in the morning stage and then outsprinted Queenslander David Kemp and New Zealand champ Gordon McCauley in the closing stages.

Stuart Shaw
Photo ©: Shane Goss
Click for larger image

The afternoon stage saw another surprise result when former World Under 23 Triathlon medallist Stuart Shaw outgunned one of the tour's big name riders - David McKenzie - in the race into Bridport. Shaw won a stage of the recent Tour of Gippsland, which was the first of three legs of the Tattersall's Cup and in just his fourth multi-day race has already forged a powerful reputation.

"I'm still pretty raw at this road racing caper, but I'm enjoying it enormously...obviously when you can win a race you enjoy it more," he said.

Shaw was involved in a break of 10 riders, who settled into a rhythm that worked like clockwork. The group included some of the pre-tour favourites, namely David McKenzie, Gordon McCauley and last minute entry, Tasmanian Matthew Goss.

David McKenzie
Photo ©: Shane Goss
Click for larger image

McKenzie had finished at the head of the chasing bunch in the morning stage, losing 1'30 to Higgerson, but his afternoon performance saw him jump back into contention and is now fourth on General Classification honours, although still 1'18 minutes adrift of the leader. McCauley has spent the last week in Tasmania in training, cut his morning deficit of 12 seconds back to 8, while Goss was one of the big movers in Stage 2. The dual World Junior Track medallist, missed the morning break, finishing 24th and facing a chase of 2'08 minutes to pick up on the leaders. With six of the top 10 GC riders in the afternoon break, Goss did well to claw his way back into seventh position, although he still trails Higgerson by 1'57.

"I'm happy with where I am positioned, I've only been home for about 10 days after a fair stint overseas, so I'm still trying to recover," the Tasmanian star said. "I will ride seriously in this tour and try to get a high GC position, but the real goal will be a World Cup track event in Moscow in November."

The lead group
Photo ©: Shane Goss
Click for larger image

The morning stage into Grindelwald featured some of Tasmania's most scenic terrain, its just a pity the riders who were motoring along at 40 kph, didn't have the chance to enjoy it.

"It was a great race and full of tactics," Higgerson said. "That big Tasmanian, Matthew Rice worked really hard for the entire race and of course McCauley was pretty keen to win a stage of this tour as well, so it was a matter of which rider to watch," he added. "I ended up making my final sprint at about 600m to go and luckily enough, I was able to hold on to win."

With Kemp and McCauley filling the minor placings, fellow breakaway riders, Simon Clarke, Matthew Rice and Andrew Naylor grabbed a smaller share of the bonus time points on offer before McKenzie and former Australian time trial champion Josh Collingwood (SA) led the bunch home. But losing more than a minute in such a short stage would have hurt psychologically and the afternoon reaction from McKenzie was expected.

The chasing bunch
Photo ©: Shane Goss
Click for larger image

Shaw's afternoon breakaway belittled the bunch, but it also showed which riders were working for others. At one section the gap had blown out to 4 minutes before a token fight back from the peloton reduced the margin to 3'12 minutes when Robert McLachlan led the chasing bunch home. By that stage, Shaw, McKenzie, Goss and fellow breakaways had cooled down, packed their bikes away and were ready to return to home base.

Shaw is riding for the newly developed MGPower team, which so far in this Tattersall's Cup series has won seven stages, Shaw (2), McLachlan (4) and Higgerson (1). "We (MGPower) are probably not going to win GC honours, so we're after as many stage wins as possible, seven out of 11 so far, is not a bad return," he grinned. "I reckon our sponsors would be pretty happy with that."

The Jayco Tour of Tasmania enters its second day with events around Scottsdale before North-West Coast sports fans get a glimpse of one of the country's best road races.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com

Results

1 Stuart Shaw                                      2.16.33    41.26km/h
2 David McKenzie                                          
3 Matthew Goss                                            
4 Gordon McCauley                                     0.01
5 Shaun Higgerson                                         
6 Simon Clarke                                            
7 Richard Moffatt                                     0.03
8 Nathan Wise                                             
9 Luke Weir                                           0.05
10 Patrick Shaw                                       0.15
11 Robert McLachlan                                   3.12
12 Bernard Sulzberger                                     
13 Peter McDonald                                         
14 Daniel Burtt                                           
15 David Kemp                                         3.15
16 Peter Milostic                                         
17 Daniel Furmston                                    3.16
18 Sean Finning                                           
19 Trent Stevenson                                        
20 Matt Haydock                                           
21 Matthew Rice                                           
22 Heath Keenan                                           
23 Andrew Hanigan                                     3.19
24 Timothy Walker                                         
25 Matthew Gilbert                                        
26 William Robinson                                   4.18
27 Peter Dawson                                           
28 David Hiley                                            
29 Wesley Sulzberger                                      
30 Jarrod Harman                                          
31 Samuel Rix                                             
32 Joshua Wall                                            
33 Aaron Salisbury                                        
34 Luke Bettany                                           
35 Andrew Naylor                                          
36 Cameron Wise                                           
37 Robert Cater                                           
38 Joshua Marden                                          
39 Luke Dale                                              
40 Matthew Sydes                                          
41 Nash Kent                                              
42 Robert Tighello                                        
43 Phil Gough                                             
44 Mathew Rex                                             
45 Caleb Manion                                           
46 Darren Lapthorne                                       
47 Jason Hegert                                           
48 Peter Ladd                                             
49 Steven Pilson                                          
50 Robert Hodgson                                         
51 James Maebus                                           
52 Simon Van Der Aa                                       
53 Joshua Collingwood                                     
54 Sid Taberlay                                           
55 Michael Ford                                           
56 Russell Gill                                           
57 Chris Jongewaard                                       
58 Corey Roberts                                          
59 Johhny Walker                                          
60 Casey Munro                                            
61 Peter Herzig                                           
62 Kirk Eddy                                         21.06
63 Andrew Ward                                       23.28
64 Michael Hardy                                     23.51
65 William Murray                                         
66 David Oliver                                           
67 Glenn Myler                                            
68 Brendan Washington                                     
69 Steven Robb                                            
70 John Rayner                                       25.44
71 Jason Johnson                                     38.37
72 Andrew Cochrane                                   40.14
73 Scott Peoples                                     52.35
Sprints
 
Gravelly Beach General Store
 
1 Heath Keenan                                           3 pts
2 David Kemp                                             2
3 Samuel Rix                                             1
 
Marions Winery
 
1 David McKenzie                                         3 pts
2 Joshua Collingwood                                     2
3 Wesley Sulzberger                                      1
 
Pipers River General Store
 
1 Richard Moffatt                                        3 pts
2 Gordon McCauley                                        2
3 David McKenzie                                         1
 
Delamere Winery
 
1 David McKenzie                                         3 pts
2 Patrick Shaw                                           2
3 Shaun Higgerson                                        1
 
Mountains
 
Climb 1
 
1 Matthew Goss                                           3 pts
2 Sid Taberlay                                           2
3 Bernard Sulzberger                                     1
 
Climb 2
 
1 Matthew Goss                                           3 pts
2 Gordon McCauley                                        2
3 Shaun Higgerson                                        1
 
Climb 3
 
1 Gordon McCauley                                        3 pts
2 Matthew Goss                                           2
3 Richard Moffatt                                        1
 
Climb 4
 
1 Stuart Shaw                                            3 pts
2 Gordon McCauley                                        2
3 Nathan Wise                                            1
 
Most Aggressive Rider 
 
 Gordon McCauley                                          
 David McKenzie                                           
 
General Classification after stage 2
 
1 Shaun Higgerson                                  3.30.07
2 Gordon McCauley                                     0.08
3 Simon Clarke                                        0.25
4 David McKenzie                                      1.18
5 Stuart Shaw                                         1.21
6 Richard Moffatt                                     1.33
7 Matthew Goss                                        1.57
8 Luke Weir                                           2.27
9 Patrick Shaw                                        2.53
10 Nathan Wise                                        3.21
11 David Kemp                                         3.28
12 Matthew Rice                                       4.02
13 Robert McLachlan                                   4.49
14 Peter McDonald                                     4.58
15 Peter Milostic                                     5.01
16 Bernard Sulzberger                                 5.09
17 Daniel Furmston                                    5.14
18 Andrew Naylor                                      5.15
19 Matt Haydock                                       5.36
20 Timothy Walker                                     5.39
21 Sean Finning                                       5.42
22 Daniel Burtt                                       5.44
23 Andrew Hanigan                                     5.46
24 Joshua Collingwood                                 5.50
25 Wesley Sulzberger                                  6.03
26 Peter Herzig                                       6.04
27 Robert Tighello                                        
28 Sid Taberlay                                       6.14
29 Johhny Walker                                      6.16
30 Luke Dale                                              
31 Caleb Manion                                           
32 Robert Hodgson                                     6.23
33 Joshua Wall                                        6.29
34 Phil Gough                                         6.38
35 Cameron Wise                                           
36 Joshua Marden                                          
37 James Maebus                                       6.44
38 Mathew Rex                                             
39 Jarrod Harman                                      6.45
40 Darren Lapthorne                                   6.50
41 Nash Kent                                              
42 David Hiley                                            
43 Trent Stevenson                                    6.55
44 Peter Ladd                                         7.08
45 Jason Hegert                                           
46 Casey Munro                                        7.17
47 Peter Dawson                                           
48 Matthew Gilbert                                    7.19
49 Michael Ford                                       7.23
50 Steven Pilson                                      7.32
51 Chris Jongewaard                                   7.35
52 Simon Van Der Aa                                   7.37
53 Matthew Sydes                                          
54 William Robinson                                       
55 Luke Bettany                                       7.44
56 Heath Keenan                                       7.49
57 Samuel Rix                                         7.51
58 Corey Roberts                                      7.57
59 Russell Gill                                           
60 Aaron Salisbury                                    8.18
61 Robert Cater                                      10.20
62 Kirk Eddy                                         25.06
63 Andrew Ward                                       26.00
64 Steven Robb                                       26.55
65 Brendan Washington                                27.10
66 David Oliver                                           
67 William Murray                                    28.04
68 John Rayner                                       28.11
69 Michael Hardy                                     28.22
70 Glenn Myler                                       32.18
71 Jason Johnson                                     43.56
72 Andrew Cochrane                                   48.29
73 Scott Peoples                                     56.57
 
Sprint Classification
 
1 David Kemp                                             8 pts
2 David McKenzie                                         7
3 Simon Clarke                                           5
4 Gordon McCauley                                        5
5 Heath Keenan                                           3
6 Richard Moffatt                                        3
7 Shaun Higgerson                                        3
8 Andrew Naylor                                          2
9 Patrick Shaw                                           2
10 Joshua Collingwood                                    2
11 Samuel Rix                                            1
12 Wesley Sulzberger                                     1
 
Mountains Classification
 
1 Gordon McCauley                                       12 pts
2 Matthew Goss                                           8
3 Shaun Higgerson                                        8
4 David Kemp                                             4
5 Stuart Shaw                                            3
6 Sid Taberlay                                           2
7 Nathan Wise                                            1
8 Richard Moffatt                                        1
9 Bernard Sulzberger                                     1