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Timbercorp Cup Tour of the Murray River - NE

Australia, August 26-September 2, 2007

Main Page    Results   Overall standings    Previous Stage  

Stage 13 - September 2: Waikerie kermesse, 44 km

McDonald declared Murray River Champ

By Rod Morris in Waikerie (Sa)

Peter Dawson (SouthAustralia.com/AIS)
Photo ©: Shane Goss
(Click for larger image)

Sydney based Peter McDonald claimed his first ever overall victory in the Fishers IGA Tour of the Murray River and will carry an 11-point lead to Tasmania in the Timbercorp Cup National Cycling Series. McDonald (28) successfully defended the coveted leader's yellow jersey for seven days in the 756-kilometre tour after moving into the lead in the second stage from Moama to Barham last Sunday.

The expanded Tour of the Murray River took in three states (Victoria, NSW and South Australia) for the first time and finished in the riverland district town of Waikerie yesterday afternoon with a brilliantly successful 44-kilometre kermesse on the edge of the famous river. The final day's stage on a tight and technical circuit was spectator friendly and making full use of the opportunity to display his talents, West Australian gold medal Olympian Peter Dawson won handsomely. In a great burst at the finish, Dawson held off another gold medal Olympian, Brett Aitken, with luckless Victorian Nicholas Sanderson coming home in third.

It was Sanderson's fourth minor placing for the tour and it was Dawson's second stage win. Whilst Dawson was impressive in his victory, his main focus remains the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he hopes to again part of the Australian pursuit team. Dawson missed a ride in the final of the 2004 Athens final, but was presented with a gold medal courtesy of his inclusion in the preliminary rounds.

The peloton pass the Murray River Queen
Photo ©: Shane Goss
(Click for larger image)

"I have just signed a new contract with an American team and I believe I am racing in the best form of my life, so I'm looking forward to the next few seasons, in particular smashing them on the boards in Beijing next year," he said. Dawson and his southaustralia.com team-mates didn't control the final stage, but they controlled their own tactics and orchestrated the right finish, with Dawson appearing to provide the lead out for Sanderson, but then having enough sprint power left in himself to win outright.

Queensland's Grant Irwin, riding for the newly established Ord Minnett team was offered the perfect opportunity to improve his General Classification rating from third to second after picking up 19 bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints and then a further one second bonus for finishing sixth in the stage. Irwin leapfrogged South Australian teenager sensation Jack Bobridge for outright second, finishing 1.13 minutes and 1.23 minutes behind McDonald respectively.

How it unfolded

Grant Irwin featured in all but one of the intermediate sprints, winning four of them as his Ord Minnett team drove the peloton rigorously throughout the 44-kilometre kermesse. Irwin was still in contention for the final sprint, but there were plenty of challengers throwing everything at him. With Dawson leading out Sanderson, Savings and Loans South Australian rider Brett Aitken was also coming, while the tour's RoadSafe Mildura Sprint champion Miles Watson was also in the mix, as was last year's Tour of the Murray River sprint champion, David Kemp. But Dawson, who won the Euston Criterium earlier this week was superb in the closing stages, while Aitken and Sanderson almost locked handlebars as they crossed the line. Such is their super bike skills, no damage was done.

SouthAustralia.com/AIS drive the peloton
Photo ©: Shane Goss
(Click for larger image)

"This was a great way for the team to finish the tour, we didn't have a rider in contention on GC, so for the bulk of the tour we concentrated on stage wins and it worked pretty well for us in the end." The southaustralia.com Australian U23 team won six of the 13 stages, with Dawson and Mark Jamieson claiming two wins each and Sean Finning and Miles Olman also successful.

The team also had Sanderson in four minor placings and Dawson, Olman and Finning also claiming minor stage results. Jamieson also won the tour's Most Aggressive Rider award for some outstanding efforts mid-tour prior to him crashing out of the event in Friday's Ouyen – Patchewollock – Ouyen road stage. Miles Watson dominated the sprint championship, amassing 106 points to finish 46 points clear of McDonald. In the Tourism Victoria King of the Mountain Championship, Tasmanian Daniel Furmston scored a 9-point win over Miles Olman and in the WHK Thomsons Criterium Championship, Grant Irwin won by 6-points from Nick Sanderson.

The Timbercorp Cup National Cycling Series is now 24 races old this year and Peter McDonald leads on 171 points.

Next closest to him is Grant Irwin on 160 and then Patrick Shaw on 140. No other rider has triple figures with the 11 stage Tour of Tasmania to determine final standings from October 2-7.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com

Results

1 Peter Dawson                               58.14 (45.335 km/h)
2 Brett Aitken                                    
3 Nicholas Sanderson                              
4 Miles Watson                                0.02
5 David Kemp                                      
6 Grant Irwin                                     
7 Leigh Howard                                    
8 Jason Hegert                                    
9 Russell Gill                                    
10 Gary Mueller                                   
11 Brad Edmunds                                   
12 Ben Mather                                     
13 Patrick Shaw                                   
14 Jack Bobridge                                  
15 Peter McDonald                                 
16 Cameron Hughes                                 
17 Benjamin King                                  
18 John Ebeling                                   
19 Miles Olman                                    
20 Tom Middleton                                  
21 Daniel Braunsteins                             
22 Peter Smith                                0.09
23 Darcy Rosenlund                                
24 Michael Stallard                               
25 Robert Cater                               0.13
26 Tony Mann                                      
27 Matthew Sherwin                            0.19
28 Matt Sillars                               0.21
29 Luke Aggett                                0.26
30 Jarrod Harman                                  
31 David Pell                                 0.31
32 Daniel Mcculloch                           0.33
33 Chris Jory                                 0.44
34 Gavin Nicholls                             0.46
35 Gilbert Gutowski                               
36 David Tozer                                    
37 Nigel Sullivan                                 
38 Samuel Rix                                 0.51
39 Sean Finning                                   
40 Will Dickeson                              1.48
41 Shaun Higgerson                                
42 Brendan Schultz                                
43 Nathan Wise                                    
44 Matt King                                      
45 Simon Brown                                2.55
46 Will Wettenhall                            4.22
47 Glen Peterson                                  
48 Thomas Baxter                                  
49 Brendon Sharratt                           5.06
50 Travis Frisby                              5.50
51 Daniel Furmston                                
52 Grant Webster                              8.45
53 Craig Robertson                           11.40
54 Jeremy Hills                                   
55 Stephen Price                                  
56 Chris Steffanoni                               
57 Brendan Jones                                  
58 Douglas Repacholi                              
59 Re Meneaud-Young                               
DNF Peter Milostic                                
DNF Lachlan Stewart                               
 
Sprints
 
Lap 2
1 Grant Irwin                                    3 pts
2 Patrick Shaw                                   2
3 Darcy Rosenlund                                1
 
Lap 4
1 Darcy Rosenlund                                3 pts
2 Grant Irwin                                    2
3 Patrick Shaw                                   1
 
Lap 6
1 Shaun Higgerson                                3 pts
2 Grant Irwin                                    2
3 John Ebeling                                   1
 
Lap 8
1 Tony Mann                                      3 pts
2 Leigh Howard                                   2
3 Grant Irwin                                    1
 
Lap 10
1 Miles Olman                                    3 pts
2 Leigh Howard                                   2
3 Benjamin King                                  1
 
Lap 12
1 Russell Gill                                   3 pts
2 Grant Irwin                                    2
3 Patrick Shaw                                   1
 
Lap 14
1 Grant Irwin                                    3 pts
2 Matt King                                      2
3 Patrick Shaw                                   1
 
Lap 16
1 Grant Irwin                                    3 pts
2 Peter Dawson                                   2
3 Leigh Howard                                   1
 
Lap 18
1 Grant Irwin                                    3 pts
2 David Pell                                     2
3 Shaun Higgerson                                1
 
Criterium championships
 
1 Peter Dawson                                  10 pts
2 Brett Aitken                                   9
3 Nicholas Sanderson                             8
4 Miles Watson                                   7
5 David Kemp                                     6
6 Grant Irwin                                    5
7 Leigh Howard                                   4
8 Jason Hegert                                   3
9 Russell Gill                                   2
10 Gary Mueller                                  1
 
Most aggressive rider
 
1 Leigh Howard                                   2 pts                                
 
Final general classification
 
1 Peter McDonald                          17.43.04
2 Grant Irwin                                 1.13
3 Jack Bobridge                               1.23
4 Patrick Shaw                                1.33
5 Cameron Hughes                              1.47
6 David Kemp                                  1.53
7 Benjamin King                               1.54
8 Leigh Howard                                2.03
9 Tom Middleton                               4.42
10 John Ebeling                               5.02
11 David Pell                                10.55
12 Peter Dawson                              13.13
13 Brad Edmunds                              13.22
14 Miles Watson                              16.02
15 Tony Mann                                 16.44
16 Miles Olman                               19.33
17 Darcy Rosenlund                           23.41
18 Robert Cater                              23.43
19 Gavin Nicholls                            26.15
20 Nicholas Sanderson                        26.23
21 Gilbert Gutowski                          35.49
22 Michael Stallard                          36.47
23 David Tozer                               37.53
24 Daniel Mcculloch                          38.11
25 Matt Sillars                              39.01
26 Ben Mather                                40.20
27 Russell Gill                              42.39
28 Jarrod Harman                             43.40
29 Daniel Furmston                           44.32
30 Daniel Braunsteins                        45.43
31 Chris Jory                                46.29
32 Matt King                                 48.37
33 Brendan Schultz                           52.05
34 Jason Hegert                              52.52
35 Matthew Sherwin                           54.17
36 Will Dickeson                             55.30
37 Shaun Higgerson                           55.49
38 Chris Steffanoni                          58.07
39 Craig Robertson                           58.32
40 Brett Aitken                              58.48
41 Peter Smith                               59.26
42 Sean Finning                            1.00.14
43 Glen Peterson                           1.00.31
44 Nathan Wise                             1.02.20
45 Samuel Rix                              1.04.37
46 Gary Mueller                            1.12.00
47 Douglas Repacholi                       1.18.08
48 Travis Frisby                           1.18.57
49 Luke Aggett                             1.20.46
50 Will Wettenhall                         1.22.42
51 Brendan Jones                           1.24.36
52 Nigel Sullivan                          1.25.38
53 Re Meneaud-Young                        1.28.58
54 Thomas Baxter                           1.30.25
55 Simon Brown                             1.51.23
56 Stephen Price                           1.53.22
57 Grant Webster                           2.00.05
58 Brendon Sharratt                        2.04.49
59 Jeremy Hills                            3.10.13
 
 
Sprints classification
 
1 Miles Watson                                 106 pts
2 Peter McDonald                                60
3 Darcy Rosenlund                               50
4 David Pell                                    48
5 Patrick Shaw                                  44
6 Brendon Sharratt                              37
7 Grant Irwin                                   36
8 Sean Finning                                  35
9 Benjamin King                                 35
10 Peter Dawson                                 25
11 Robert Cater                                 20
12 Cameron Hughes                               20
13 Tony Mann                                    19
14 Jack Bobridge                                17
15 Chris Jory                                   14
16 Brad Edmunds                                 13
17 Leigh Howard                                 12
18 Peter Milostic                               11
19 Miles Olman                                   9
20 Daniel Furmston                               9
21 Nathan Wise                                   9
22 Brendan Jones                                 9
23 John Ebeling                                  6
24 Gilbert Gutowski                              5
25 Shaun Higgerson                               5
26 Michael Stallard                              4
27 David Kemp                                    4
28 Russell Gill                                  3
29 Matt King                                     2
30 Gavin Nicholls                                2
31 Lachlan Stewart                               2
32 Matthew Sherwin                               2
33 Nicholas Sanderson                            1
34 Matt Sillars                                  1
35 Will Dickeson                                 1
36 Daniel Mcculloch                              1
37 Chris Steffanoni                              1
38 David Tozer                                   1
39 Tom Middleton                                 1
 
Mountains classification
 
1 Daniel Furmston                               25 pts
2 Miles Olman                                   16
3 Tony Mann                                     15
4 Peter Milostic                                10
5 Brendon Sharratt                               6
6 David Kemp                                     6
7 Gilbert Gutowski                               3
8 Benjamin King                                  3
9 Nathan Wise                                    2
10 Daniel Braunsteins                            2
11 Darcy Rosenlund                               2
12 Nicholas Sanderson                            2
13 David Pell                                    1
14 Miles Watson                                  1
15 Patrick Shaw                                  1
 
Criterium championships classification
 
1 Grant Irwin                                   39 pts
2 Nicholas Sanderson                            33
3 Miles Watson                                  30
4 Peter Dawson                                  30
5 Robert Cater                                  25
6 Brett Aitken                                  22
7 Leigh Howard                                  22
8 Patrick Shaw                                  22
9 Peter McDonald                                21
10 Russell Gill                                 19
11 Sean Finning                                 18
12 Gary Mueller                                 18
13 Jack Bobridge                                12
14 Douglas Repacholi                            12
15 Darcy Rosenlund                              12
16 David Kemp                                   12
17 Brendon Sharratt                             10
18 Tony Mann                                     8
19 Cameron Hughes                                8
20 Jarrod Harman                                 7
21 David Pell                                    7
22 Matt King                                     5
23 John Ebeling                                  4
24 Michael Stallard                              4
25 Peter Smith                                   4
26 Jason Hegert                                  3
27 Miles Olman                                   3
28 Tom Middleton                                 3
29 Will Dickeson                                 1
30 Daniel Braunsteins                            1
31 Matthew Sherwin                               1
32 Nathan Wise                                   1
 
Most aggressive rider classification
 
1 Mark Jamieson                                  4 pts
2 David Pell                                     2
3 Peter Smith                                    2
4 Brendon Sharratt                               2
5 Daniel Furmston                                2
6 Miles Watson                                   2
7 Cameron Hughes                                 2
8 Leigh Howard                                   2
9 Miles Olman                                    2
10 Sean Finning                                  2
11 Peter McDonald                                2
12 Robert McLachlan                              2