Men's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race: Tobias Lund Andresen edges out Matthew Brennan to take the win from small group sprint

Fresh off a Tour Down Under where he finished on the podium in four of the six stages, Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) edged out Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) to win the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong on Sunday.

From an elite group of 20 riders that had come together at the front of the race after the final climbs, Brennan was the first rider to start his sprint, launching early at just inside of 300 metres to go, and as Francesco Busatto (Alpecin-Premier Tech) began to lose his wheel. Andresen went around the Italian, using his slipstream to give a final turn of speed to catch and pass a fading Brennan, who actually hadn't intended to go so soon, but held on for second place regardless.

"That was a perfect scenario for me," said Andresen. "There was a guy in between that was already used up, so I had to watch out for him. Matty said he thought there was 200 meters to go so bad surprise for him, but for me, obviously it was perfect."

Neo-pro Brady Gilmore (NSN Cycling) got the better of defending champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) to take third ahead of the Swiss champion.

Attacks, often led by Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), flew off the front of the peloton as they tackled the steep Challambra Crescent, with teams trying to split the group and dislodge the sprinters, but it wasn’t until the fourth and final time up the climb that an elite group split off the front.

However, the group still included fast men such as Brennan, Andresen, Aaron Gate (XDS Astana), Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), in addition to Schmid, Australian champion Patrick Eddy (ARA Australian Cycling) and others with nine kilometres to go. More attacks flew, but the group came back together in the final two kilometres.

“It's always a 50/50, in this race," said Andresen of whether or not he was going to be able to make it over Challambra Crescent four times to be at the end for the sprint. "If they're going all out every time probably it's a bit hard for me but with the support of the guys, and just kind of dropping through the bunch the first couple of times, and being brought back ... I just managed to squeeze over the last time."

"Then from there, I told the guys with one lap to go, if they put me perfect position the last time in, I would win the race. So I was feeling good, I put myself out there but yeah, it worked out.”

How it unfolded

The 183.8km race kicked off in uncharacteristically mild conditions, with the temperature still a couple of degrees below the expected maximum of 20°C, a far cry from some of the other days in January the peloton has faced, when temperatures have been double that.

Some teams were lining up without a full squad, most notably the Tour Down Under winning squad of UAE Team Emirates, who had only four riders given the injuries from that race and also a different sports director after Fabrizio Guidi got a second yellow card on the final day of racing in South Australia, leading to a seven-day suspension. Ineos-Grenadiers also had an unexpected late withdrawal, with Sam Welsford signing on but, feeling unwell on the line.

The peloton rolled away from the foreshore in neutral, and then it wasn't long after race director Scott Sunderland waved the flag to signal that the race was on that the break went. Despite the undermanned team, it was actually UAE Team Emirates rider Vegard Stake Laengen who jumped.

The experienced Norwegian was joined by two of the younger riders in the race, 20-year-old Oliver Peace (Picnic PostNL) and the 19-year-old Julian Baudry (ARA Australian Cycling), who last year was the Australian U23 men's road race champion in his first year out of the junior ranks.

Jayco AlUla, with defending champion Mauro Schmid on the squad, and Visma-Lease a Bike, with Matthew Brennan in mind, put the purple and yellow jerseys on the front to keep the gap in check, which hovered around two-and-a-half minutes at 145km to go.

The tension built in the peloton led by Hamish McKenzie (Jayco AlUla), as the wind picked up, forcing the start of echelon formation at the front of the field with wind speed at 24 knots in Torquay according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

A change of direction and open road with no protection brought chaos, as teams massed at the front of the peloton, fighting for position, while a few riders were caught out at the back, as the gap to the breakaway tumbled to 1:22 with 95 kilometres to go. Jayco AlUla put more riders at the front and soon regained control.

Though the trio worked well together and briefly increased their gap back up to two minutes, their lead tumbled once again as teams including Uno-X Mobility, Lotto Intermarché, Tudor and Jayco AlUla, once again battled for position on the open road on the top of a ridge with a tail crosswind blowing with 75 kilometres to go.

Peace led the break over the top of Challambra Crescent, with an average gradient of 8.7%, and steeper pitches of 11%, with the peloton at 45 seconds, but the last rider from the break was caught two kilometres later. Counterattacks flew immediately, bringing Bahrain Victorious to the front to try and control the aggression.

Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermaché) launched a second attack, getting a small gap as he crossed the finish line, to start the first of three circuits, followed by ARA Australian National Team leading the peloton. The Frenchman was soon reeled back in, and the field regrouped and waited for the next time up Challambra Crescent as a few raindrops fell.

Bahrain Victorious won the battle for position as they tackled the climb with Robert Stannard setting a hard pace for teammate Santiago Buitrago on his wheel, followed by Marco Brenner (Tudor), Natnael Tesfatsion (Movistar) and Brennan.

After Stannard pulled off, Buitrago put in an attack on the next steep kicker up Queens Park Road, causing splits in the peloton. Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) and Andreas Kron (Visma-Lease a Bike) countered when groups rejoined, but soon let themselves be reeled in by the Visma-led peloton. Rinse and repeat, the peloton regrouped and crossed the finish line to start the penultimate lap with 41 kilometres to go.

This time up Challambra Crescent, Buitrago waited longer to make his move as Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) put in a long and sustained pull. But the Colombian was not able to split the peloton, and once the group crested the climb, a flurry of attacks and counterattacks followed. This time around, it was Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X Mobility) and Chris Harper (Australia) who rolled the dice with a late move off the front. The duo had 30 seconds on the Visma-led peloton as they crossed the finish line for the bell lap.

After spending most of the day in the back half of the peloton, defending champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) moved up as they approached the climb while a crash in the back of the field took down riders. Under the impetus of the Australian WorldTour team led by Luke Plapp, the two escapees were back in the fold inside of 10 kilometres to go, and Plapp continued to apply pressure on the climb causing a split in the field, before his teammate Schmid went to the front as they crested, before the small group sped down the descent, hitting speeds of 100 kmph.

Buitrago, one of the riders to make the selection, went on the offensive again on the steep ramps of Queens Park Road, but Luke Lamperti (EF Education–EasyPost) quickly jumped on his wheel. Brennan bridged across and briefly took over at the front, yet the move stalled, and the lead group came back together, growing to around 20 riders as others rejoined with four kilometres remaining. More attacks followed, first from Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility), and then Brenner, but each was quickly shut down as the bunch sped toward the finish, setting up a sprint from the reduced group.

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