Giacoppo gets long overdue win in Goulburn

Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys) broke through for his first ever NRS win, taking out the Goulburn to Sydney Classic’s opening prologue, with a brilliant ride on the 3.7km course. For Giacoppo, third overall at the Tour of Geelong the win was something special.

"I'm stoked, I've come close quite a few times but I've yet to hit the top spot until now - it's really good," said Giacoppo. "I came out here yesterday, and rode the course probably ten times, just trying to work out the parts of the course that were sketchy

"We came out here with some deepish rims, because we were worried about the wind. You want to be able to take the corners quickly and still have some straight line speed. The plan went perfectly."

Second place on the day went to teammate Nathan Haas, and third was Adam Phelan (Drapac). Haas was quick to praise his teammate, after on so many occasions being the beneficiary of Giacoppo’s loyal work as a domestique.

"We've just done a training camp in Tasmania and we did a number of big efforts and the standout rider was always Giacoppo," said Haas. "The form that Giacoppo's in is scary. The guy has absolutely burned himself on the front all year, and to get this opportunity and to take it is great. I'm really proud of him."

How it unfolded

Warm weather and sunny skies greeted riders for the opening day of the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic, a 3.7km prologue around Victoria Park in Goulburn.

Riders faced up to two laps of the circuit that included a number of technical corners, and an open windy back straight.

The first rider on course was Jacob Kauffman (Drapac) who clocked 5 minutes flat to open the leaderboard. Nicholas Dougall (Jayco-2XU) was the first rider to break the 4:50 mark, and he was followed not long after by Kyle Marwood (Genesys) who posted a blistering 4:40.

Marwood’s time set the bar high, and though a number of riders including Rhys Pollock (Drapac) 4:42 and Mark Jamieson (Jayco-2XU) 4:43 were close, he remained in the hot seat until the final 10, when the real fast man rolled out.

It was teammate Anthony Giacoppo who finally bettered Marwood’s time and he did it with a slick ride of 4:35. Joe Lewis (Jayco-2XU) looked good on his first lap but faded in the second, to finish with 4:36 and another young star, Dale Parker, who many had tipped as a dark horse after an impressive 2011 in the United States, failed to ride consistently over the course and didn’t trouble the timers.

Adam Phelan (Drapac), who has been really finding his feet as the season builds toward the Herald Sun Tour in October, nearly did enough to oust Giacoppo but he also missed, finishing just a few tenths of a second down.

With a fast time to aim for it came down to current NRS overall leader, Nathan Haas, who was neck and neck with Giacoppo’s time from start to finish. As he approached the final straight, there were still hundredths in it and despite a last ditch lunge to the line, it was Giacoppo who would stand atop the podium, marking his first ever NRS win. The Genesys rider will now go into tomorrow’s main event, the 170km classic, with a handy overall lead as long as he can hang on over the day’s final climb up Razorback.

"At the moment I seem to be climbing alright, so as long as there isn’t a break with any dangerous people in it, I’ll probably try and just take it easy in the bunch," said Giacoppo."Hopefully, then if it comes down to a sprint, I can just to the team job and set up Steele for the win."