Perth Criteriums wrap up, Genesys takes early season edge over Budget

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An electric four nights of racing in Western Australia came to a close on Tuesday night, with Luke Davison (Budget Forklifts) and Leonie Burford (Hays Recruting) taking the final night’s victories to conclude the fifth edition of the Smokefree Perth Criterium Series.

The story however was of a local rider, Australian criterium champion Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys Wealth Advisers) who continued the run of form he displayed at the Jayco Bay Classic Series and the nationals, by taking two stage wins, as well as the overall. Impressively the 25-year-old never finished lower than second, in spite of the best efforts of the Eddy Hollands, Budget Forklifts and Plan B teams, and sounds an ominous warning to his domestic rivals that he'll be a hard man to beat in 2012.

"It's a race that I've always wanted to win, I was looking forward to it, and really motivated particulalry after January," said Giacoppo to Cyclingnews. "Wearing the green and gold jersey, the bike, I think if anything it added a little more pressure, but I was really happy to be able to get the overall win. The four of us [Sam Davis, Alex Carver and Pat Shaw] worked really well together all week, I think it's a great sign for us ahead of our next stint of racing [in Asia]."

Davis, also a local, took out the second stage, to add to Giacoppo's wins, to complete a brilliant week for the Tasmanian-based Genesys Wealth Advisers team. NRS rivals Budget Forklifts, played second fiddle for much of the series but did manage pick up some consolation in their 'home race' with Davison's final night win, as well as earning themselves the sprint classification courtesy of Shaun McCarthy.

Davison explained the race had been about perfecting that winning formula, which he believes the team is close to polishing ahead of the National Road Series' opening event, the Mersey Valley Tour in April.

"I think it's impressive that we were able to stand up after the disappointment of a couple of near misses, continue to play to our strengths and get the result," said Davison to Cyclingnews. "I would have to say motivation is without doubt at an all time high at this point [after the win].

"The new setup at Budget Forklifts and the addition of several new sponsors including Specialized, I think we'll be a different team in 2012."

Meanwhile in the women’s event, Olympic champion Nicole Cooke secured the overall, after a classy team peformance from her Hays Recruiting team, which also sent her to two stage wins. Hays Recruiting won all four stages of the event, with Kate Finegan and Leonie Burford taking out a stage each respectively.

Cooke is using the warmer Australian weather as the perfect aid to her gold-medal defense in London later this year, and was joined in Perth by another illustrious Brit, former Garmin-Cervelo rider Emma Pooley (AA Drink Leontien).

A brief summary of the results from the four-day event can be seen below.