Tour of the Tamar - Tattersall's Cup #5 - NE

Tasmania, Australia, August 28, 2002

2001 Results Results Past winners

Milostic makes up for poor series with Tamar win

Egan secures overall points score

By Rod Morris

Memories of how tough the 2001 race was, spurred New South Welshman, Peter Milostic to victory in today's 150 km Tour of the Tamar - the fifth and final race in the prestigious Tattersall's Cup Cycling Series. Milostic (28) from Sydney, won the tough race, just eight seconds ahead of fellow NSW cyclist Glenn Stojanow and exciting 18-year-old Victorian, Joel Pearson.

Overall honours meanwhile in the Tattersall's Cup went to stringbean Victorian, Leigh Egan, who was a model of consistency throughout the series. Egan scored five top 10 finishes, including 5th in the Tour of the Ballarat Goldfields, 4th in the Tour of the Goulburn Valley, 3rd in the Tour of the Southern Grampians, 6th in the Tour of the La Trobe Valley and a creditable 10th today.

"I now know how tough this series really is and all I want to do is go home and go to bed," Egan said.

Milostic agreed with Egan on the toughness of the Tasmanian race. "I can recall last year's event and how it got tougher the longer the race went," he explained. "It was a matter of biding your time in the peloton and making sure the breakaways didn't get too far ahead."

A small group of five - but very talented - riders did make an early break and although they were together for approximately 90 km of the race, were gobbled up by the chasing pack over the last 25 km. That early breakaway group included Tasmania's Bernard Sulzberger, Victorian Andrew Torney and NSW rider Nathan Russell - all of whom entered the final race with a realistic chance of winning the series. Brendan Cato (NSW) and Garry Parsons (Vic) were the other two in the leading quintet and picked up numerous points in both the King of the Mountain and Sprint Championship - titles, that eventually went to Phillip Thuaux (NSW) and Jonathon Cantwell (Qld) respectively.

Milostic said he had not enjoyed a successful Tattersall's Cup, but heaped praise on the organisation of the event. "Ignore the fact how I rode in the first four races, this is a great event and one that is held in high regard by riders right throughout Australia."

Prior to today, Milostic had finished 27th, 9th, 17th and 37th and was 21st overall.

The top 10 riders (11 with ties) in the points aggregate earned automatic selection in the prestigious Herald Sun Tour, which will be raced in Victoria from October 18-27. That top 10 included two Tasmanian riders, Sulzberger - who also won the Sid Patterson Memorial Best Young Rider Award - Karl Menzies, who jumped from 13th to equal 10th after today's race.

Eddie Salas held onto second place overall, while Nathan Russell leapt from 5th to 3rd and relegated Sulzberger to fourth. Other riders to earn Herald Sun Tour selection included Thuaux, Andrew Torney (Vic), Christopher Carr (Vic), Jonathon Davis (NSW), Matthew Goold (Vic), Simon Walker (Vic) and Karl Menzies.

Goold was the hard luck story of the Tour of the Tamar becoming the only medical casualty after falling 4 km short of Beauty Point. Goold broke his collarbone badly and spent the night in the Launceston Hospital.

Tour Director John Craven said the co-operation from Tasmania - particularly the Launceston City Council, TT-Line and major sponsor Tattersall's was one of the major reasons behind the success of the race.

"Everything went smoothly and the weather was absolutely perfect - we couldn't have asked for better," Craven said.

Results - 150 km

1 Peter Milostic (NSW)            3.47.37
2 Glenn Stojanow (NSW)               0.08
3 Joel Pearson (Vic)
4 James Taylor (Vic)
5 Ryan Sullivan (Tas)
6 Karl Menzies (Tas)
7 Nathan Jones (WA)
8 Eddie Salas (NSW)
9 Nathan Russell (NSW)
10 Leigh Egan (Vic)
 
Tattersall's Cup overall points 

1 Leigh Egan (Vic)                    87 pts
2 Eddie Salas (NSW)                   79 
3 Nathan Russell (NSW)                69 
4 Bernard Sulzberger (Tas)            67 
5 Phillip Thuaux (NSW)                64 
6 Andrew Torney (Vic)                 63 
7 Christopher Carr (Vic)              58 
8 Jonathon Davis (NSW)                55 
9 Matthew Goold (Vic)                 55 
10 Simon Walker (Vic)                 54 
11 Karl Menzies (Tas)                 54 
 
King of the Mountain Championship

1 Phillip Thuaux (NSW)
 
Sprint Championship

1 Jonathon Cantwell (Qld)
 
Sid Patterson Memorial Young Rider Award

1 Bernard Sulzberger (Tas)

Past winners

2001 Phillip Thuaux (NSW)