ProVelo Super League: Levi Hone and Sophia Sammons take overall Tour of Tasmania victory as Reuben Page-Brown and Ruby Taylor win stage 4

A bandaged up Sophia Sammons (Team Redcat) finished safely in the bunch on the stage 4 criterium of the Tour of Tasmania to hold her overall lead to the end despite a stage 3 crash, while Levi Hone (Team Brennan) shot up to the top of the overall ranks when he jumped over to the the break and then took third on the line. The pair also both moved to the top of the ProVelo Super League leaderboard at the end of the second round of racing.

Reuben Page-Brown (VIS p/b K.O.M.P) and Ruby Taylor (Team Redcat) claimed the final stage wins in the Launceston criterium run on a 1.95km circuit, with the women racing for an hour and the men an hour and ten minutes.

It was the second win of the tour for the 18-year-old Taylor, who also won the women's stage 1 time trial, and moved up to second overall behind teammate Sammons in the tour GC with the criterium win. Stage 2 was won by Sammons, while stage 3 was cancelled after a mass pile-up, so Team Redcat won all of the three women's stages at the event.

"It's really incredible, actually. This is my first road race in ProVelo ever," Taylor, who spends plenty of time on the mountain bike, told broadcaster SBS. "The first stage was really made for me 'tailor-made' as my coach said to me, which I thought was hilarious.

"This stage, look, I was really nervous last night, maybe missed a few hours sleep, but I knew that I had the legs and I know how to position in a crit, which is surprising because I don't do that much racing, but I just knew it was the front or nothing and in the end it worked out."

It was a clear sprint victory for Taylor ahead of Keely Bennett (Butterfields Ziptrak), who hasn't been off the podium the entire tour, while Anna Dubier (Nstrmo x Attaquer x CCACHE) took third.

It was Hone's position in the break on Sunday that moved him into the top spot on the overall – two seconds ahead of teammate and stage 2 winner Oliver Bleddyn – as he had started the rain-tinged final day of racing in Tasmania with a 39-second deficit in fifth.

Hone leapt over to the six-man break, which also included teammate Patrick Eddy. The Australian road race champion made a late attack from the break, but that was chased down by Page-Brown and caught before the final corner, with the VIS p/b K.O.M.P rider then keeping up the momentum to power over the finish line first.

Eddy took second and Hone third. Leighton Cook (Falcons Pedal Mafia) crossed the line at the same time in fourth, while the remaining break riders of Monty Manion (COBRA9 x Leigh Surveyors) and Dylan Proctor-Parker crossed the line within ten seconds.

The first of the chase groups, including Bleddyn and stage 3 winner Connor Wright (Falcons Pedal Mafia), then crossed the line 34 seconds back with the gap and time bonuses Hone had accumulated through the final stage enough to put Hone in the top spot overall ahead of Bleddyn.

With the Tour of Tasmania now complete, the next round of Australia's top-tier domestic racing series, which aims to be a step on the pathway to launching riders internationally, will now unfold at the Melbourne to Warrnambool and Warrnambool Women's Cycling Classic, which will run on February 28 and March 1.

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