Timbercorp Cup Tour of the Murray River - NE

Australia, August 26-September 2, 2007

2006 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners

The Stages

Stage 1 - August 26: Echuca criterium, 25.5 km
Stage 2 - August 26: Moama to Barham, 112.9 km
Stage 3 - August 27: Kerang criterium, 33 km
Stage 4 - August 27: Kerang To Cohuna, 74.7 km
Stage 5 - August 28: Euston criterium, 52 km
Stage 6 - August 29: Merbein criterium, 33 km
Stage 7 - August 29: Merbein To Wentworth, 80.4 km
Stage 8 - August 30: Mildura kermesse, 66 km
Stage 9 - August 31: Ouyen criterium, 36 km
Stage 10 - August 31: Ouyen criterium, 36 km
Stage 11 - September 1: Loxton criterium, 42 km
Stage 12 - September 1: Loxton kermesse, 66 km
Stage 13 - September 2: Waikerie kermesse, 44 km

Champions by the score

By Rod Morris

Gold medal Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion and World title holders head the field for this week's eight day Fishers IGA Tour of the Murray River, starting in Echuca on Sunday. Brett Aitken, Peter Dawson, Sean Finning, Mark Jamieson, Leigh Howard, Jack Bobridge and Robbie McLachlan are just some of the names among the A Class field of 86 riders, who will contest the 13 stage, 756 kilometre tour, which will take in three states before finishing in Waikerie on September 2.

Aitken won Olympic gold in the 2000 Sydney Madison with partner Scott McGrory, while he also won the 1994 Points Score gold medal at Commonwealth level.

Dawson was a member (although not a finalist) in Australia's 2004 Olympic Games teams pursuit, while Finning and Jamieson won gold and silver respectively at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Finning's medal came in the points score event and Jamieson was in the 4000 m pursuit team.

Teenagers Howard and Bobridge have just recently returned from overseas where they won gold medals at the World Junior Track Championships, while McLachlan is by far the most successful rider in the history of the Tattersall's Cup series, which is now known as the Timbercorp Cup. The Tattersall's Cup started in 1996 and included just three one day races. It has since evolved into the Timbercorp Cup and is made up of the eight stage Tour of Gippsland, three race Australian Cycling Grand Prix, Tour of the Murray River (13 stages) and Tour of Tasmania (11 stages).

McLachlan's career history includes 19 stage wins as well as overall series victory in 2003 and 2005. He also won the 2006 Tour of the Murray River. Next best to McLachlan's 19 wins is seven, held jointly by Brett Aitken and Wesley Sulzberger.

With next week's Tour of the Murray River to include nine criteriums or kermesses, as well as a number of flat road races, overall victory is likely to come from a sprinters like Aitken, McLachlan, Queensland's David Kemp or the well credentialed Sean Finning.

The 22 year-old Victorian has won three stages in previous series, all of them criteriums. Finning won the Mallacoota criterium in the 2006 Tour of Gippsland and the Latrobe (Tasmania) criterium in 2006 before continuing his fine form in this year's Tour of Gippsland when he won at Payneseville. Providing he doesn't lose too much time on the road stages, Finning's name is sure to be well up on general classification.

Finning will be riding for the powerful SouthAustralia.com-AIS team, which is basically the national Under 23 squad and his teammates for the week will include the likes of Nicholas Sanderson, William Ford, Mark Jamieson, Shaun Higgerson, Peter Dawson and Miles Olman. The team has been in great touch throught the 2007 Timbercorp Cup series, winning five stages of the Tour of Gippsland (Sanderson, Ford, Zak Dempster, Finning and Cameron Meyer), as well as overall honours (Dempster) and then claiming the road race through William Ford in the ACGP at Ballarat.

The team's results in the past two years have been stunning and the Tour of the Murray River will be the next goal.

Start list

1 Robert Mclachlan (ACT)          
2 Brett Aitken (SA)               
3 Peter Dawson (WA)               
4 Peter Mcdonald (NSW)            
5 Shaun Higgerson (ACT)           
6 David Kemp (Qld)                
7 Sean Finning (Vic)              
8 Mark Jamieson (Tas)             
9 Grant Irwin (Qld)               
10 Peter Milostic (NSW)           
11 Miles Olman (Qld)              
12 Matt Sillars (NZ)              
13 Josh Page (NZ)                 
14 Patrick Shaw (Vic)             
15 Leigh Howard (Vic)             
16 Nicholas Sanderson (Vic)       
17 William Ford (Vic)             
18 Tony Mann (Qld)                
19 Chris Jory (NSW)               
20 Darcy Rosenlund (Qld)          
21 Steven Robb (Vic)              
22 Ben Mather (Tas)               
23 Benjamin King (WA)             
24 Hayden Josefski (Qld)          
25 Cameron Hughes (Qld)           
26 Timothy Decker (Vic)           
27 Miles Watson (Vic)             
28 Matt King (NT)                 
29 Brendan Schultz (Vic)          
30 Gary Mueller (Vic)             
31 Tom Middleton (SA)             
32 Craig Mccartney (Vic)          
33 Jarrod Harman (Tas)            
34 Gilbert Gutowski (Qld)         
35 Brad Edmunds (NSW)             
36 Will Wettenhall (Vic)          
37 Damien Turner (Vic)            
38 John Ebeling (NSW)             
39 Jason Hegert (NSW)             
40 Robert Cater (NSW)             
41 Brendan Jones (NSW)            
42 Will Dickeson (SA)             
43 Stephen Price (Tas)            
44 Russell Gill (SA)              
45 Daniel Furmston (Tas)          
46 Daniel Braunsteins (Vic)       
47 Jack Bobridge (SA)             
48 Nigel Dunstone (NSW)           
49 Luke Aggett (Vic)              
50 Thomas Baxter (SA)             
51 Simon Brown (Tas)              
52 Evan Corry (Vic)               
53 Jonathan Coulter (Qld)         
54 Jamie Crass (Vic)              
55 Travis Frisby (SA)             
56 Malcolm Hart (Vic)             
57 Jeremy Hills (Tas)             
58 Jack Hudson (Qld)              
59 Daniel Johnston (NT)           
60 Peter Johnstone (Vic)          
61 Scott Kilmartin (Qld)          
62 Jacob Lea (Vic)                
63 Shaun Mccarthy (Vic)           
64 Daniel Mcculloch (Qld)         
65 Reuben Meneaud-Young (SA)      
66 Gavin Nicholls (Qld)           
67 Glen Peterson (Vic)            
68 Douglas Repacholi (WA)         
69 Samuel Rix (Vic)               
70 Craig Robertson (Vic)          
71 Malcolm Rudolph (Qld)          
72 Brendon Sharratt (Vic)         
73 Michael Stallard (SA)          
74 Chris Steffanoni (Vic)         
75 Lachlan Stewart (Vic)          
76 Nigel Sullivan (Vic)           
77 David Tozer (Vic)              
78 Nicholas Walker (Vic)          
79 Grant Webster (NSW)            
80 Christos Winter (SA)           
81 Vaughan Bowman (Vic)           
82 Alexander Machin (Vic)         
83 Matthew Sherwin (Vic)          
84 Peter Smith (Vic)              
85 Nathan Wise (Vic)              
86 David Pell (Vic)

Past winners

2006 Robert McLachlan
 
Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com