Earle unbeatable at Bunya Mountains

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Nathan Earle proved once again that he is the man to beat on an uphill finish when he won Stage 2 atop Bunya Mountains at the FKG Tour of Toowoomba. The Huon Salmon-Genesys rider has already won a multitude of hill-top finishes this year starting with the queen stage at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and showed his climbing prowess on the gruelling climb at the end of the 122km stage in Toowoomba. 

Earle and his Huon Salmon-Genesys teammate Ben Dyball piled on the pressure on the final ascent at Bunya - that ramps up in the first kilometre to more than 15% - with Matt Clark (CharterMason Drapac Development) the only rider able to stay with the Tasmanian outfit duo. At the finish it was Earle who bested Clark to the line while last week's Battle on the Border winner Jack Haig, also from the Huon Salmon-Genesys squad bridged up to the group halfway up the climb to snatch third-place.

"The climb was really tough, we knew it was going to come down to the climb and today we wanted a break to go and we knew Drapac would have to defend," Earle told Cyclingnews. "We wanted to keep them out of it [the break] and we did so we got quite an easy ride to the base of the climb.

"Dyball and myself were up there and just rode away from everyone. Matt Clark he was there and Jack Haig did an awesome ride to bridge across to us and it was just a matter of trying to maximise the damage on the climb and leave a little bit until the end."

Dyball slipped back in the final sprint for the line after giving it his all to set up the win for Earle and would eventually finish in fourth, just four-seconds down on the newest race leader Earle. Clark however, was not so easily dispatched and gave Earle a run for his money in the final kick to the line.

The day's purple jersey wearer Will Walker, who took out the opening stage yesterday crossed the line in 13th place and relinquished his overall classification lead as he expected. Walker's Drapac Professional Cycling Team did their duty at the front of the peloton for the nearly the entire stage after a five-rider break formed in the opening 10km.

The breakaway was finally caught after making the right-hand turn onto Bunya Mountain Road and just before the start of the 5.5km ascent. The bunch was at full-speed leading into the steep opening pinch with the climbers immediately to the fore. Those who misjudged their position at the bottom were soon forced to chase hard as the gaps former and riders began to become unhitched.

For Clark, it was a matter of trying to maintain his position in the hectic race to the bottom of Bunya. The result on the line and his new position in second-overall is evidence that the CharterMason squad is more than just a feeder team, according to this year's Mount Buller road race.

"It was really aggressive, especially towards the bottom," Clarke told Cyclingnews. "Guys trying to fight for position before the climb started so I was doing whatever I could to stay up the front, all I could hear behind me was a fair few crashes so I really had to fight to stay towards the front.

"We had a couple of guys up the front to try and hold the gap [to the break] and I guess we are showing now that we are not just the young guys behind Drapac, we are standing up as our own team now and we are also capable of getting our own results at big races," he added.

Tomorrow's stage is the toughest in the four-day race with teams facing a morning team time trial of 27km before taking on the 113km wind-swept Greenmount road race. The morning TTT will no doubt favour the Huon Salmon-Genesys squad who will then need to refuel and recover before defending a likely bigger lead in the afternoon.

"We are in purple now and I think we have the strongest TT'ing team here," Earle told Cyclingnews. "We have Jack Haig, who is a strong time traillist but then Joe Copper and Aaron Donnelly - those guys are freaks so I should be able to just sit on and get them to get the job done." 

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