Friday 7th September: The seemingly unstoppable force of Australian riders continued to power through the criterium on day five of the Tour of Murray River.
Once again, Genesys Wealth Advisors Professional Cycling and Team Budget Forklifts took control of the two stages, ensuring no one got in the way of them taking the top spot.
Crosswinds were a major factor of the day during in both criterium making for some tough racing. It was a long day for PureBlack Racing who lost their captain, Roman van Uden, to illness in the second criterium.
“It was brutally hard racing today, we lost a rider,” said Director Sportif, John “Harry” Harris, “Roman has a chest cough today but he will pull through and race again tomorrow, he just ran out of gasoline today.”
Genesys also lost one of their top riders, Patrick Shaw, who withdrew from Stage Eight with a broken clavicle, but unlike Roman, will not continue the tour.
“We weren’t the only team that had a hard day, all the top teams looked to be having a hard time around these two courses,” said Harry
Luke Davison (Team Budget Forklifts) took out Stage Eight after a crash coming into the final stretch knocked out some of the peloton and those lucky to escape launched into a bunch sprint finish. The average speed for the criterium was 42.4km per hour.
Anthony Giacoppo, who is currently winning the Australian National Road Series (Scody Cup), came in second right behind Luke, followed by yesterday’s winner, Alex Wohler (Team Down Under).
There was plenty of action to come that afternoon in the second criterium around Lake Boga. Genesys rider Campbell Flakemore and New South Australian National Cycling Team rider, Harry Carpenter, took a break roughly halfway through the course and putting up to 40 seconds between them and the chasing peloton.
The breakaway of two stuck until the end, giving Campbell the win in a time of 54:02. Ryan Macanally from Team Budget Forklifts finished in third.
The average speed of the Lake Boga criterium was 43.3km per hour.
Although PureBlack Racing did not make an impact in today’s races, James McCoy was still up in the front of the bunch and did not lose too much time on the G.C.
“James has been keeping up, and Joe [Cooper] and Taylor [Gunman] have both been riding really well,” said Harry, “We will be looking at Joe leading James out tomorrow to ensure he stays in the G.C.”
Tomorrow’s stages are a 48km criterium through Robinvale at 12.30pm NZT followed by a 52km criterum around Euston at 3.45pm NZT.