Cyclingnews

January 4, Stage 4: Williamstown

Hoskins holds on to final day lead to celebrate a deserved overall win

By:

Jane Aubrey

Published:

January 4, 03:31,

Updated:

January 4, 11:31

Ewan's second stage win not enough to overcome Davis

Photos

Melissa Hoskins (GreenEdge-AIS) has claimed GreenEdge's first overall victory in the fledgling team's short history, with the 21-year-old successfully retaining the overnight lead at the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic. 

"I knew my team would look after me and they did really well," Hoskins said.

"I just had to back myself again, the girls did everything out there to keep me there so it was up to me to not let them down and coming around that last corner, that's the fastest I think I've ever taken a corner in my life."

Teammate Amanda Spratt summoned her inner time triallist, with a brave solo victory that began eight laps out from the finish to make it another brilliant day for the GreenEdge women.

"After that last intermediate sprint I just saw the perfect moment to attack," Spratt explained. "I went and no one came with me and once I had the gap it was just a case of making sure I stayed out there. I knew I had Mel and my teammates back there.

"Mel's proved to be the fastest sprinter here all week. It was a win-win for us – me at the front and Mel at the back."

Spratt was unchallenged in the back-end of the race, averaging 12 second gap on a rapidly reducing peloton. Meanwhile, Shara Gillow (GreenEdge-AIS) has taken out the Sprint Ace Competition, making it an historic occasion for the new GreenEdge women's professional team.

Hoskins finished second on the day behind Spratt, but was a deserved overall winner on 32 points after a consistent run throughout the race. Teammate Tiffany Cromwell was second behind Spratt. Chloe Hosking (Total Rush/Hyster) finished third on the stage and second overall with Rochelle Gilmore (BikeExchange Dream Team) next best on 21 with GreenEdge-AIS Jessie Maclean on 16.

Ewan's second stage win not enough to overcome Davis

Caleb Ewan (NSWIS) has won his second stage of the Jayco Bay Classic, riding off the wheel of GreenEdge's Leigh Howard in the last 50 metres to convincingly take the win. Howard finished in second place with overnight race leader Allan Davis (Mitchelton Wineries – Lowe Farms) in third, securing the overall victory on 29 points.

"It's great to finally get the overall win, another one off the bucket list," Davis said.

"Full congrats to the young fella, Ewan.No matter who you're racing, it doesn't matter about names, it's all on the legs doing the talking and he's done that.

"Apart from ability he knows where to put himself in a bike race and that will take him just as far as his ability."

Ewan finished second overall, one point behind and then BikeBug's Anthony Giacoppo third on 23 points.

Wearing Saxo Bank gloves and socks, 17-year-old Ewan is extremely focussed towards a professional career. He explained after the win that he believed that victory today meant more to him at this stage, than what it did to some of his older, more experienced rivals.

"I think that's what really gave me the extra kick in the end to try and win it," he told reporters.

"Leigh was matching me for a while and I just needed to grind a bit more and once I got around him I had the momentum to win," Ewan explained the sprint finish. "I was pretty surprised. I thought Allan Davis was going to be leading into the corner but he'd backed off."

While much of the on-course talk this week has resulted in comparisons to Mark Cavendish – Phil Liggett today suggested that Ewan is quicker than the Manx Missile at the same age – the world junior omnium champion suggests that he might not develop as a pure sprinter and instead be "more like [Philippe] Gilbert."

Ewan's next target is the Australian Track Nationals in Adelaide and won't be taking too much time to celebrate his win with another track session in the pipeline for tomorrow.

Earlier, Bernie Sulzberger (Urban Hotels), wrapped up two of the three intermediate sprints, to ensure his green jersey victory. Sulzberger, who has signed for Raleigh for the coming season in Europe said he was surprised to have been allowed to go through the day unchallenged.

"Mitch Docker was only three points behind me at the start so I thought that he actually would have went for it today but he didn't which made it a pretty easy job," he told Cyclingnews. The 30-year-old's focus now switches to the National Championships where on Thursday he will contest the criterium and then on Sunday, the road race where he is chasing a spot on the UniSA team.

"I was in good condition here last year and now I'm as good or better so I'll head into the crits tomorrow night and the road race with pretty good form," Sulzberger explained. "I'm happy with the way things are going."

The fourth and final race of the series in Williamstown did not allow for individual attacks of great yield due to the hot pace, including a scintillating lap of 1:10 in the final kilometres. The bunch stayed together for much of the race, with GreenEdge maintaining control at the front.

The speed contributed to a decent attrition rate with the majority of the field failing to finish, with tomorrow's national championships perhaps a factor.

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