06.09.12

Tour of Murray River Stage 6 - It was a non-eventful day for PureBlack Racing during Stage Six and Seven of the Tour of Murray River yesterday, which featured two short criterium...

Thursday 6th September: It was a non-eventful day for PureBlack Racing during Stage Six and Seven of the Tour of Murray River yesterday, which featured two short criterium.

The first was a 39km race made up of 30 laps of a 1.3km course around Moama. The wind along the Murray River had picked up for the first time of the tour making for a tough day.

Team Budget Forklifts rider, Luke Davison took out the criterium ahead of Malcolm Rudolph (Drapac Professional Cycling) and Alex Wohler (Tour Down Under).

Luke has been a powerhouse in the Scody Cup Series criterium, giving the Genesys Wealth Advisors Professtional Cycling riders a run for their money.

PureBlack Racing’s Joseph Cooper saw himself in the mix of the criterium finishing in 9th place.

The second criterium was 30 laps of a 1.2km course. The course was short, sharp and tight with time bonuses on almost every second lap.

Having come third in the morning’s criterium, Alex Wohler was feeling a lot more confident and the 20-year old took out stage seven ahead of Luke Davison and Australian Olympian, Glen O’Shea (New South Australian National Road Cycling Team).

Roman van Uden was up in the mix of this criterium, picking up sprint points on the way but when the breakaway was brought back to the bunch to line up for a bunch sprint, he did not have the legs to continue the work he had done and finished in 13th place.

It was not the day for Genesys either who failed to get a podium in either of the criterium, however, still maintain their lead in the overall individual G.C, through Joel Pearson. With the teams’ plan now to take the wins, by controlling the peloton with eight riders, and not chase the intermediate sprints, it is looking a lot harder for the teams with less riders to get the elusive stage win they are looking for.

With the Tour of Murray River at the halfway mark, James McCoy is sitting in 7th place on the individual G.C., 45 seconds behind the leader Joel Pearson from Genesys.

Today the teams will compete in two criterium today; the first a 39km race around Moama starting at 1pm NZT, followed by a 36km criterium around Gunbower starting at 4pm NZT.

AVANTI RIDERS