Flakemore wins the Lake Boga criterium from breakaway

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Campbell Flakemore (Genesys) took his second win in as many weeks when he won stage 9 at the Tour of the Murray River. Flakemore outsprinted his breakaway partner Harry Carpenter (SASI) at the end of the 39km criterium in Lake Boga. Flakemore most recently won a stage at the Tour of the Great South Coast but today’s win would also see him bump teammate Joel Pearson out of the leader’s jersey and down into second spot.

Riders had little time to recover after the morning’s criterium in Kerang before they lined up - for the second time of the day - in the town of Lake Boga for a 39km criterium.

Joel Pearson was at the front of the bunch as current race leader but he would be starting the ninth stage without Genesys teammate Pat Shaw who crashed in the final lap of the morning’s criterium in Kerang.

There were clearly some tired legs at the start of the 30-lap race as five riders quickly established a lead within the opening laps. Malcolm Rudolph (Drapac) took out the first sprint while Campbell Flakemore (Genesys) and James Hepburn (RBS Morgans-ATS Cycling) took second and third.

The five man group continued to work together while also contesting the sprints. Peter Loft (Budget Forklifts) took out the Lap 8 sprint followed by his teammate Luke Davison and race leader Pearson.

A combination of hard stages and a week’s racing meant the field began to split up early as riders attempted to join the front group. At the next sprint it was Davison who won the three points followed by Flakemore and Harry Carpenter (SASI).

Davison and Rudolph were active in the following two sprints while Caleb Jones also made his presence felt by taking a point on lap 12. The group had swelled to around 12 riders however their gap to the peloton was reduced as rider started to fall off the pace.

Flakemore took out the sprints on lap 18 and 20 and Carpenter keenly took second place on both occasions as the duo formed a strong breakaway entering the final 10 laps.

The leading two shared the intermediate sprints between each other as Carpenter took the maximum on lap 22 and Flakemore rolled across in first at the next sprint. Meanwhile their lead had extended to almost 30 seconds.

With 5 laps to go Flakemore and Carpenter continued to work well together. Their lead extended over 30 seconds to the chasing peloton and the bunch would have to work hard to bring back the strong pair.

Flakemore was happy to take the next two sprints ahead of his breakaway companion Carpenter while the bunch was struggling to make any inroads into their lead. As the duo passed the finish line with three laps to go their lead had grown to 41 seconds. Their gap would be near impossible to close over the last three kilometres of the race.

At the end it was Flakemore who won the stage ahead of his breakaway partner Carpenter. The bunch was lead in by Ryan MacAnally (Budget Forklifts) for third place.

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