Goss and Sulzberger brothers set for one final race at Stan Siejka Classic

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The Tasmanian trio of Matt Goss, and Bernie and Wes Sulzberger will all be lining up at the Stan Siejka Classic as professional cyclists for one last time in their career on November 27. The Launceston criterium is an annual end of season race with equal prize money of $5000 for the elite men and women's categories.

Goss announced his retirement from the sport in September, calling time on a career that started with Team CSC in 2007 and included victory at Milan-San Remo, stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and silver medal in the 2011 World Championships. The 29-year-old also rode for HTC, Orica GreenEdge, MTN-Qhubeka and spent the 2016 season with ONE Pro Cycling. Goss' last race on European soil was the Schaal Sels in August and his appearance at the Stan Siejka Classic allows the Tasmanian to farewell friends and family on home soil and close the circle on his career.

"I'm done now until the Launceston Crit so I'll do a bit of a 'bye, seeya later' there and that will be it," Goss told News Corp. "It basically all kicked off from that crit a few years ago beating a few pros at that time gave me a start, so I thought it was kind of fitting to back and finish in the same place." 

Former Orica-GreenEdge teammate Wes Sulzberger will also be farewelling the sport as he calls time on his cycling career at 30 to focus on a coaching career. During his career, Wes Sulzberger rode for the FDJ team, GreenEdge, Drapac, Navitas and spent 2016 with the Kinan Cycling Team. During his career, he won a medal in the U23 World Championships road race, rode the Tour de France and three editions of the Vuelta a Espana.

Older brother Bernie, who completed a watchmaking traineeship before starting his career, spent the last four seasons with Drapac. The 2013 Tour de Taiwan overall victory was the biggest win in the 32-year-old's career that also included stage wins at the Tour of Utah and the Tour de Beauce, and the 2008 national criterium title.

"I will still ride socially, but professionally that will be it for me. It will be a pretty good way to go out," Bernie Sulzberger told The Examiner. " Matt and I started riding about the same time growing up together in Flowery Gully so it will be good to go out together. I've done the race a few times and my best result is third so it would be nice to improve on that."

The Stan Siejka Classic generally attracts the fastest sprinters from Australia but in 2014 the organisers managed to attracted Chris Froome to the race in what was a wet edition. Tasmanian Richie Porte (BMC) is also a regular rider at the race and is expected to again return in 2016. Bernie Sulzberger's Drapac teammate William Clarke is another Tasmanian rider expected to line up at the race ahead of his move to the WorldTour with Cannondale-Drapac from 2017.

A full start list for the 2016 Stan Siejka Classic will be announced ahead of the November 26-27 weekend of racing.

The 2015 edition of the race was won by Anthony Giacoppo (Avanti IsoWhey Sports) and Kimberley Wells (High5 DreamTeam).