Law claims final sprint into Salt Village

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Chloe McConville (Jayco/Apollo VIS Women) claimed the final stage into Salt Village at the Battle on the Border after winning the sprint from a select group at the end of the women's 77km race. Rebecca Wiasak (Suzuki Bontrager), winner of yesterday's time trial finished in second place with Ruth Corset (Pensar SPM Racing) in third.

"It was an awesome team effort, the other VIS girls did a really solid job," said an excited McConville.

McConville had ridden aggressively throughout the stage and even enjoyed a brief leaving pass from the main bunch as she decided to go it solo at the 58km point.

"When I broke [away] my sole aim was to get over the climb - for me to have any chance of sticking with the bunch I had to be up there which worked perfectly. I can descend well and once we got towards the finish I was confident I'd have a pretty good kick at the end."

Corset, courtesy of her strong riding throughout the tour, claimed the overall Battle on the Border title after starting the day with the race leader's jersey on her shoulders. Miranda Griffiths (Holden Women) held onto second place with Wiasak bumping herself into third overall after taking a time bonification on the line.

Wiasak, who finished second on the stage and ended the tour in third overall was bitter-sweet about the day's result. Coming so close to the win and getting edged out was a little frustrating for the Canberrean.

"It's a little frustrating as I've never won a road race," said Wiasak. "I just have to put missing out on the GC behind me. I was giving it a red hot go, I was gunning for it around the Salt Village circuit and on the last corner I went too fast and almost ran into the barricade - I put the brakes on and McConville came up on the inside of me and got a little bit lucky."

The overall Battle on the Border victor Corset paid tribute to the powerful rides put in by her Pensar SPM Racing teammates and added that while she has won races in the past, the one claimed in the northern part of New South Wales was just that little bit sweeter considering the level of racing experienced in the 2013 edition.

"I'm really grateful to the rest of the Pensar team. Katrin [Garfoot] led me out really well and we knew Holden were going to come at us so we had to work really hard," said an elated Corset.

Law repeats final day victory in Salt, Haig captures overall

In the men's NRS Battle on the Border it was Scott Law (GPM-Data#3) who took back-to-back final-stage wins after claiming the fourth stage at the Woodside Tour de Perth. Law positioned himself perfectly leading into the technical last few kilometres to edge out Drapac duo Bernard Sulzberger and Robbie Hucker for the stage win.

"I got myself up to third wheel going into the second-last round-about, there was Alex Wohler from Budget and George Tansley from Euride in front, I tried to sneak up towards second on one of the final corners, Alex went a little too wide and I snuck up the inside and took it from there," explained Law.

"We were really keen to come here and get a good stage result, my teammates did well to keep covering the moves and keeping me out of trouble," he added after missing out on the chance for a stage win in yesterday's cancelled criterium.

"The Genesys guys were controlling the field really well towards the finish and they were probably trying to get AJ [Giacoppo] up, so we tried to use that to our advantage and kept out of harm’s way."

Jack Haig (Huon Salmon-Genesys) finished five-seconds down on the front group that split in the final metres but did enough to comfortably claim his first NRS overall title. Huon Salmon-Genesys teammate Jai Crawford was close behind to hold onto second while Giant-Satalyst's Adam Semple continued his strong showing after Tour de Perth to claim third on GC.

"Pretty happy because it seems like I've got a pretty good strike rate in the NRS at the moment," said an excited Haig to Cyclingnews at the finish. "I got a third in Perth and a first here so it's happy days."

Haig echoed a familiar sentiment from the Huon Salmon-Genesys camp that once the team moves into the overall lead it is almost certain the team will be able to retain it until the end.

"We are confident that once we have yellow that our team is super strong and would be able to ride anything back - if there was a break that went up the road. It's really reassuring to know that."

A number of breakaways attempted to establish themselves in the first half of the race and while they contained a number of strong riders like the day's eventual winner and third-place finisher Law and Hucker, Haig and his Tasmanian outfit were never truly concerned.

"There was a couple of moments but it was never really nervous moments because I had faith in the boys that they would be able to bring it back. We have just super strong guys in the team."

Third-place overall Semple, who most recently finished second on the queen stage at Tour de Perth was satisfied with the end result as he believed his form is still lifting since opening his season just a couple of weeks ago.

"The curve is still on the drastic increase," Semple told Cyclingnews. "My form is still improving at a fast rate, week by week. Every race that I get in the legs is building me up better and better.

"There was always hope that Huon Salmon-Genesys would have to use Jai and then I could have tried something but as it stands, we had the time trial and I didn't do enough to move into second place. I'm satisfied but I'm really waiting for my chance to be back standing on that top step."

With the critical stage for GC contenders coming on the first day of racing at Battle on the Border up Mount Warning, Semple said the unusual format worked as it helped to create order within the often chaotic NRS field.

"I like that because it sorts out the peloton hierarchy immediately and also reduces the chance of someone who could have been a GC contender from crashing or getting sick in the later part of the race and missing out all together."\

With the next round of the NRS starting late next week at Tour of Toowoomba most the teams and riders, including race winner Haig were already putting their intentions out there.

"Off to Toowoomba, it's pretty much a reverse to what is here," Haig told Cyclingnews. There's a hill-top finish at the end of the tour and there's also a team time trial. We showed in the individual time trial here, with the top four positions that we might be able to take the win in the team time trial and we'll have to see after that. One of the other boys might get the win but it would be nice to keep it going."

The Drapac squad, who got their best result of the tour on the final stage voiced a similar opinion to Haig after experiencing contrasting results at Battle on the Border.

"It’s good to have two of us on the podium today, but we’ve got mixed feelings for the tour in general," said Sulzberger who finished fifth-overall.

"Genesys controlled the peloton today as we expected, they didn’t want anyone getting out too quickly - all up we look forward to the Tour of Toowoomba this week."

"We're taking the same team to Toowoomba so it's a matter of recovering, doing some work and fronting up looking for a better team result," said 10th-overall Hucker.

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