Giacoppo gets long overdue win in Goulburn

Anthony Giacoppo celebrates his first win in the NRS, in the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic prologue.

Anthony Giacoppo celebrates his first win in the NRS, in the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic prologue. (Image credit: Alex Hinds)

Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys) broke through for his first ever NRS win, taking out the Goulburn to Sydney Classic’s opening prologue, with a brilliant ride on the 3.7km course. For Giacoppo, third overall at the Tour of Geelong the win was something special.

"I'm stoked, I've come close quite a few times but I've yet to hit the top spot until now - it's really good," said Giacoppo. "I came out here yesterday, and rode the course probably ten times, just trying to work out the parts of the course that were sketchy

"We came out here with some deepish rims, because we were worried about the wind. You want to be able to take the corners quickly and still have some straight line speed. The plan went perfectly."

Second place on the day went to teammate Nathan Haas, and third was Adam Phelan (Drapac). Haas was quick to praise his teammate, after on so many occasions being the beneficiary of Giacoppo’s loyal work as a domestique.

"We've just done a training camp in Tasmania and we did a number of big efforts and the standout rider was always Giacoppo," said Haas. "The form that Giacoppo's in is scary. The guy has absolutely burned himself on the front all year, and to get this opportunity and to take it is great. I'm really proud of him."

How it unfolded

Warm weather and sunny skies greeted riders for the opening day of the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic, a 3.7km prologue around Victoria Park in Goulburn.

Riders faced up to two laps of the circuit that included a number of technical corners, and an open windy back straight.

The first rider on course was Jacob Kauffman (Drapac) who clocked 5 minutes flat to open the leaderboard. Nicholas Dougall (Jayco-2XU) was the first rider to break the 4:50 mark, and he was followed not long after by Kyle Marwood (Genesys) who posted a blistering 4:40.

Marwood’s time set the bar high, and though a number of riders including Rhys Pollock (Drapac) 4:42 and Mark Jamieson (Jayco-2XU) 4:43 were close, he remained in the hot seat until the final 10, when the real fast man rolled out.

It was teammate Anthony Giacoppo who finally bettered Marwood’s time and he did it with a slick ride of 4:35. Joe Lewis (Jayco-2XU) looked good on his first lap but faded in the second, to finish with 4:36 and another young star, Dale Parker, who many had tipped as a dark horse after an impressive 2011 in the United States, failed to ride consistently over the course and didn’t trouble the timers.

Adam Phelan (Drapac), who has been really finding his feet as the season builds toward the Herald Sun Tour in October, nearly did enough to oust Giacoppo but he also missed, finishing just a few tenths of a second down.

With a fast time to aim for it came down to current NRS overall leader, Nathan Haas, who was neck and neck with Giacoppo’s time from start to finish. As he approached the final straight, there were still hundredths in it and despite a last ditch lunge to the line, it was Giacoppo who would stand atop the podium, marking his first ever NRS win. The Genesys rider will now go into tomorrow’s main event, the 170km classic, with a handy overall lead as long as he can hang on over the day’s final climb up Razorback.

"At the moment I seem to be climbing alright, so as long as there isn’t a break with any dangerous people in it, I’ll probably try and just take it easy in the bunch," said Giacoppo."Hopefully, then if it comes down to a sprint, I can just to the team job and set up Steele for the win."

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Full Results
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:35.30
2Nathan Haas (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:38.28
3Adam Phelan (Drapac Professional Cycling Team)0:04:38.52
4Joseph Lewis (Bikebug.com)0:04:39.36
5Kyle Marwood (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:40.14
6Steele Von Hoff (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:41.32
7Rhys Pollock (Drapac Professional Cycling Team)0:04:42.36
8Ben Kersten (Jayco-2XU)0:04:42.65
9Mark Jamieson (Jayco-2XU)0:04:43.45
10Benjamin Hill (Jayco-2XU)0:04:43.46
11Aaron Donnelly0:04:44.19
12Dale Parker (Jayco-2XU)0:04:45.70
13Joshua Atkins (Suzuki/Trek)0:04:46.08
14Patrick Shaw (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:46.75
15Alex Carver0:04:46.83
16Cameron Peterson (V Australia)0:04:47.69
17Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:47.95
18Peter Herzig (Budget Forklifts)0:04:48.46
19James Hepburn (Jayco-2XU)0:04:48.54
20Brodie Talbot0:04:48.67
21Nicholas Dougall (Jayco-2XU)0:04:49.28
22Nathan Earle (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:49.31
23Johnnie Walker (V Australia)0:04:49.99
24Phillip Grenfell (Bikebug.com)0:04:50.69
25Taylor Shelden (V Australia)0:04:50.71
26Alistair Loutit (Bikebug.com)0:04:51.31
27Kane Walker (Genesys Wealth Advisers)0:04:51.63
28Chris Winn (V Australia)0:04:52.59
29Nicholas Walker (V Australia)0:04:52.87
30Josh Taylor (Bikebug.com)0:04:52.91
31Edward White (Forza Capital)0:04:53.01
32Stuart Shaw (Drapac Professional Cycling Team)0:04:53.23
33Nicholas D'ambrosio (Forza Capital)0:04:53.57
34Nash Kent (Forza Capital)0:04:53.74
35Jason Spencer (Budget Forklifts)0:04:54.34
36Trent Derecourt (John West)0:04:54.87
37Justin Vanstone (Team TDU)0:04:55.19
38Michael Troy (NSWIS)0:04:55.22
39Alexander Malone0:04:55.98
40Brian Mcleod (Budget Forklifts)0:04:56.73
41Luke Davison (Budget Forklifts)0:04:56.75
42Steven Pilson (John West)0:04:57.09
43Julian Hamill (Forza Capital)0:04:57.34
44Blake Hose (John West)0:04:57.61
45René Kolbach (John West)0:04:57.76
46Michael Sargeant (Team TDU)0:04:57.78
47Chris Jory (Bikebug.com)Row 46 - Cell 2
48Michael Cupitt (Budget Forklifts)0:04:58.42
49Mitchell Codner (NSWIS)0:04:58.80
50Ben Dyball0:04:58.96
51Alex Wohler (Team TDU)0:04:59.13
52Jackson-Leigh Rathbone (Parramatta Race Team)0:04:59.31
53Andrew Arundel0:04:59.73
54Brock Roberts0:04:59.99
55Jack Mcculloch (NSWIS)0:05:01.48
56James Butler (John West)0:05:01.63
57Jacob Kauffmann0:05:01.69
58Darcy Rosenlund (Budget Forklifts)0:05:02.17
59Matthew Werrell (Team TDU)0:05:03.26
60Brendan J Cole0:05:03.43
61Alex Wong (Forza Capital)0:05:03.74
62Benjamin Harvey (Parramatta Race Team)0:05:04.60
63Cal Britten0:05:05.17
64Stuart Mulhern (Team TDU)0:05:05.86
65Craig Hutton0:05:05.92
66Andrew Crawley (Bikebug.com)0:05:08.00
67Benjamin Fox (NSWIS)0:05:08.54
68Sam Rutherford (Bikebug.com)0:05:09.11
69William Lind (Suzuki/Trek)0:05:09.33
70Steven Del Gallo (John West)0:05:10.03
71Caleb Jones0:05:10.66
72Johnathon Millington0:05:10.89
73Jay Bourke0:05:11.10
74Nicholas Woods (Team TDU)0:05:12.05
75Ryan Macanally (Budget Forklifts)0:05:12.65
76Shaun Lewis0:05:12.69
77Amir Rusli (Drapac Professional Cycling Team)0:05:13.58
78Rowan Dever (John West)0:05:14.21
79Dean Sanfilippo (John West)0:05:14.52
80Dale Scarfe0:05:15.86
81Scott Law (V Australia)0:05:40.29
82Steven Robb0:06:00.88
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Overall Leader
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys Wealth Advisers)

 

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Alex Hinds, Production Editor

Sydney, Australia

Follow @al_hinds

Alex Hinds is a graduate of Economics and Political Science from Sydney University. Growing up in the metropolitan area of the city he quickly became a bike junkie, dabbling in mountain and road riding. Alex raced on the road in his late teens, but with the time demands of work and university proving too much, decided not to further pursue full-time riding.

If he was going to be involved in cycling in another way the media seemed the next best bet and jumped at the opportunity to work in the Sydney office of Cyclingnews when an offer arose in early 2011.

Though the WorldTour is of course a huge point of focus throughout the year, Alex also takes a keen interest in the domestic racing scene with a view to helping foster the careers of the next generation of cycling.

When not writing for Cyclingnews Alex is a strong proponent of the awareness of cyclists on the road in Sydney having had a few close run-ins with city traffic in the past.

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