Tour of Toowoomba: Neil van der Ploeg claims stage 1 sprint

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Avanti Racing has continued its dominance of May’s NRS racing with another of its riders snaring a stage win. This time it was Neil van der Ploeg's time as he bested Daniel Fitter (CharterMason) and Alistair Donohoe (Health.com.au-search2retain) on stage 1 of the Tour of Toowoomba.

Van der Ploeg also claimed the first leader’s jersey of the race along with the lead in the points and climbers classifications.

"I'm really happy to win the first stage of the Tour," said van der Ploeg. "Last week we had such a great result as a team so it's really nice to be able to continue that here in Toowoomba."

"There wasn't much time to think about the sprint in the end because there were attacks going all day. I went too early last year so this year I just held back a bit and got the timing right."

Second placed Fitter was pleased with his third podium finish this week after his efforts at the Battle on the Border

"I just couldn't get there in the end, I had to sprint from pretty far out and I just ran out of legs at the end, but I'm still happy with the result," said Fitter.

"Tomorrow will split the general classification and show who's on form for this Tour. We'll be looking at Keagan [Girdlestone] who's probably one of our best climbers in the team, so we'll have to really help him tomorrow."

Stage two of the race concludes with a climb to the summit of Mount Mowbullan in the Bunya Mountains and van der Ploeg isn’t expecting to retain the jersey after the 1000m plus ascent.

"I'll definitely be looking for one of my teammates to take up the reins tomorrow," said van der Ploeg. "I've gone into it thinking I might be able to do alright in the past but two years is enough to know it is not a climb for me, it's brutal."

On 118 km stage from Toowoomba to Highfields, it wasn’t until 85km had been raced that a break established and built a 30 second lead on the peloton.

Stuart Smith (Health.com.au-search2retain) and Paralympic gold medallist Michael Gallagher (Jayco/John West/VIS) were the leaders on the road. The duo established a maximum lead of 50 seconds in the 20km that they were away.

With the bunch all back together, a sprint finish was inevitable and it was the man in blue was the fastest legs after an aggressive day of racing.
The race continues with a 132km stage from Highfields to the Bunya Mountains.

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