Henderson wins Williamstown criterium as Ewan claims overall victory

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Greg Henderson interrupted Caleb Ewan’s winning start to 2015 on the final leg of the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic in Williamstown but the Orica-GreenEdge man’s fifth place finish was enough to secure overall victory in the series.

Ewan held a commanding lead after winning the first three stages of the Bay Crits and he was able to maintain a watching brief when the decisive break forged clear early on during the one-hour race, as Henderson and Roger Kluge (Total Rush Hyster) powered away.

They were tracked by Ewan’s GreenEdge teammate Michael Hepburn and Chris Hamilton (Avanti Racing), and they managed to stay clear for the remainder of the race, finishing some 45 seconds up on the main peloton.

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Henderson, so aggressive throughout the four-race series, took out the sprint for stage victory ahead of Hepburn, while Kluge took third. Behind, Ewan surged through to land the group sprint for fifth place in front of Steele Von Hoff (Avanti Racing).

It was Ewan’s second time claiming overall victory at the Bay Crits. In the opening days of his first full season with Orica-GreenEdge, however, this year’s win had a different flavour to his 2013 triumph even if the emotions were similar.

“It feels just as good and also to win as a pro,” Ewan said. “Coming here as a pro you have a bit more pressure on you to perform but coming here before it was a great achievement just to beat the pros.”

Hepburn’s presence in the winning move meant that Orica-GreenEdge made had no pressing need to bring Ewan back into contention for a possible fourth victory from four stages.

“It would have been nice to get but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter,” Ewan said. “It was good to be able to let Heppy go and race for himself instead of just riding on the front for me.”

The final leg of the women’s series was claimed by Giorgia Bronzini, who produced a typically explosive sprint to win in Williamstown but the overall victory fell to her Wiggle-Down Under teammate Chloe Hosking, who claimed third on the day.

Hosking was the winner on the opening day of racing and a consistent performer through the entire series and she finished five points clear of Lauren Kitchen (Roxsolt) atop the leaderboard to secure his second successive overall victory at the Bay Crits.

Williamstown criterium results