Walker clips away to win opening stage at Toowoomba

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Will Walker (Drapac) has bounced back from last week's disappointment at Battle on the Border, where he failed to start the final day due to illness, to capture the opening stage at the FKG Tour of Toowoomba. Walker finished two-seoncds clear of the 60-odd man bunch after following a late move in the final kilometre by Brodie Talbot (Racing Kangaroos) before opening his sprint in the final metres. 

"In the last few kilometres I found something extra," said Walker. "I probably had a little bit of tactical luck which you don't normally get too much in cycling [so] I'm really happy with a stage win."

Walker took out the 112km stage ahead of former U23 national criterium champion Ben Grenda (Polygon Australia) and Talbot who managed to hold on for third place. Last year it was Talbot who clipped away in the final kilometres to win the opening stage at Toowoomba and while missing out on taking an early lead in the race, appears on track to contest for the overall classification throughout the remaining days.

"Honestly I wasn't even planning on doing a sprint today but at the end I found myself in the right place and followed the right move with 100 meters to go,” added Walker. “Brodie Talbot has quite a bit of horse power which was pretty good because he ended up leading me out.”

For Walker, the victory marked an impressive come-back of sorts after the former WorldTour rider struggled with illness at the Battle on the Border. Walker returned home to Melbourne instead of contesting the final stage in northern New South Wales and told Cyclingnews that the Drapac team would need a different strategy for the third round of the Subaru National Road Series in Queesland.

"I think we have to tackle it differently from Battle on the Border - that's quite obvious,” he told Cyclingnews a few days before the start of Toowoomba.

With the first stage victory in the bag and his team seemingly on the up after Darren Lapthorne pushed into the top-three overall after spending the final hour or so of racing in five-man breakaway and picked up a number of bonification seconds in the intermediate sprint and king of the mountains locations.

Walker's time bonus means he will pull on the race leader's jersey for the start of Stage 2. However, the new leader of the four-day race was downplaying his chances of successfully defending his position up Bunya Mountain.

"Taking the lead in a tour is always nice, I haven't been in this position for a while so it's a good feeling to rally the troops. I think we saw a few chinks in the armour of Huon-Genesys today," he said.

"I don't see myself having recovered enough tomorrow for the climbs, but you never know."

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