Dyball takes U23 title

Ben Dyball claimed the biggest win of his career, soloing 9 kilometres to take the Australian under-23 green and gold jersey in Buninyong. The 21-year-old won by 400m ahead of Nathan Haas (Genesys Wealth Advisers) and Jo Lewis (Trek-Livestrong)

"I couldn't believe I won," Dyball said after the race. "When we started to spray the champagne, that's when the feeling stuck in."

On the first lap of twelve, a group of twelve broke free from the peloton. They were; Phillip Grenfell, Aaron Donnelly, Stephen Hall, Alex Carver, Kane Walker, Ben Grenda, Kevin Hawes, Scott Law, Nick Aitken, Geoff Straub, Adiq Othman and Sean Boyle. Over the next two laps, their advantage increased to in excess of five minutes.

Dean Windsor, Jackson Wardrop and Craig Hutton broke free from the peloton to try and bridge to the leaders, but with a two minute deficit, the trio found it hard. Brodie Talbot then launched an attack from the peloton to catch that group, but was unsuccessful in his attempt.

Over the next couple laps, the peloton edged closer to the breakaway and with 40km to go, the advantage was just one minute and forty-five seconds. Straub could sense the break was going to be caught and he attacked to get some valuable king of the mountain points to secure that jersey. He was off the front for a lap and the break group shattered featuring only Grenda, Aitken, Walker and Othman.

Grenda, the under-23 criterium winner, kept attacking that group to try and break free but despite his best efforts, he was brought back every time. On the bell lap, the break was caught and with Jayco AIS leading the reduced peloton.

It was there that Dyball made his move, attacking at the feed station on the climb.

He increased that advantage out to fifteen seconds as the peloton split up. Over the next 4km, he moved that advantage out to over twenty seconds and in the last 5km held it. The chase group tried their best to catch him, but heading into the final straight, he had approximately a four hundred metre advantage and cruised to the line. Haas sprinted out of the group to take second with Lewis settling for third.

Dyball was ecstatic taking victory and hopes it will now open up doors as he develops his career.

"Hopefully this win takes me somewhere and gives me more opportunities. It's going to be great wearing this jersey in Europe."

"On the last lap all I was thinking was I wanted to get to the end without getting caught. I never thought I had the win until the end. I started to cramp in the final hundred metres," he said.

Nathan Haas and Jo Lewis (both 21) rounded out the podium.

"I think this was a really good result for me. Getting a second place today is a good sign ahead of the time trial and I'm going to go into that race on Tuesday with confidence," Haas said.

Jo Lewis wanted to win the race, but regards third place as a good result.

"I'm a bit disappointed, but to come third place in the national championships is quite a good result. I came here to win but it didn't end up like that," Lewis described.

Twenty-one year old Geoff Straub was the king of the mountains winner and twenty year-old Sean Boyle claimed the sprint jersey.

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