Chris Froome wins Jayco Herald Sun Tour

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A last lap attack at the base of Arthurs Seat landed Chris Froome the stage and overall honours at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Teammate Peter Kennaugh finished seventh on the final stage to slip to second on GC, 32 seconds behind Froome while Damien Howson's second place on the stage elevated the Orica-GreenEdge rider to third place overall.

Froome made his winning move at the base of the third and final ascent of Arthurs Seat, riding away from Joe Cooper (AvantiIsowhey) after the duo had attacked at the top of the second ascent of the three-kilometre climb. From the remainder of the peloton, that had been slimmed by Team Sky's relentless pace up the climb, Howson was the first rider to take up the chase of Froome.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better week as a team with Pete kicking things off early on going into the leader’s jersey. First and second on that stage and then obviously, winning today the final stage up Arthurs Seat is a really, really nice way to end off the week and also to be first and second on the general classification,” Froome said after collecting his first leader’s jersey of the race.

Froome had initiated the move on the second ascent up Arthurs Seat in search of the KOM points, following the wheels of Cooper who had jumped out of the peloton. With the duo out in front, Froome explained that Sky's tactics to secure the overall victory then changed with the team backing him against last year's third place finisher.

"It was something that unfolded out on the road when I went for the king of the mountains points the second time up Arthurs Seat," Froome explained. "The team behind said, ‘listen Chris, just sit on the wheel. We are not going to ride behind, you are in a great position to go for the stage win and overall victory ‘ and Pete would bring it up behind. Massive thanks to Pete and the rest of the team obviously for giving me the all clear to go for that. I think, just general how the guys have ridden all week, they’ve been incredible. Really, really strong and they’ve basically been controlling the race from the word go."

The duo would arrive for the third ascent together before Froome took off, never looking back on his ride to stage and overall double. While Froome is more accustomed to the high mountains of France in July or Spain in August and September, he explained that the effort to win the stage still hurt.

“It’s never easy, even a day like today. It’s never easy to win a bike race even if you are against people you don’t really know, a bike race is a bike race. You have to turn yourself insight out for the result," he explained. "I wouldn’t say it was on the same scale as Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux or something like that, it’s an eight minute climb so as much as an eight minute climb can hurt, it did."

Once Howson set off in chase of Froome as Cooper was absorbed by the chasers, John Clarke (UnitedHealthcare) was the next rider to move, briefly holding Howson's wheel, as he crossed the line in third place on the same time as Chris Hamilton and Robbie Hucker (AvantiIsowhey).

Jack Haig (Orica-GreenEdge) was next across the line at 32 seconds to seal fifth place overall with Kennaugh crossing four seconds later to ensure second place overall, one week after his Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race victory. 

"It went really quick. 120k racing pretty much flat outracing all the way and it was tough and it was hot," Kennaugh told reporters after the stage. "Bit gutted not to win but then Froomey won and he was the strongest throughout the race anyway probably so he deserved the win. I ma really happy with my stage win at the start and the way I’ve started the season so I think happy days for Froomey day and happy days for the team all round."

“A little bit yeah, obviously personally but it’s one of those things," he added of whether he was disappointed not to hold on the leader's jersey. "From a team’s perspective, it worked out perfect. One he went and got the king of the mountains, which was our aim for him to win that as well, and then he just sat on the guy and we just sat behind. We kept it at 40 seconds to make sure the guy he was with at 55 seconds with me didn’t take over my second GC and then I just protected my position all the way to the finish. Coming into the race, we always said it was possible to get a one-two. It would be really good to do with Froomey as leader and I was the back up GC. Although those roles changed a bit in the early part of the race, it finished in a perfect way."

The first breakaway
Rolling off the back of Arthurs Seat, the final stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour enjoyed a fast start as the riders sped down Main Creek Road where the first attempts at establishing the breakaway were made.

Local lad Liam Hill (Keynan Riders Downunder), Nathan Earle (Drapac) and Craig Evers (Data #3) tried to get off the front as the race rolled past the wineries of the Mornington Peninsula. State of Matter/Maap controlled the pace at the front of the peloton through the rolling landscape, keeping the pace high to ensure riders would have to work hard to get away.

At the 24km mark, Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge), Pat Shaw (Avanti Iswowhey), Ben Hill (Attaque Gusto) and Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek-Segafredo) formed the first breakaway of the day. The quartet stol 47 seconds from the peloton who then decided it was happy with the composition and duly paused for a nature break.

After 30km, the four-rider group had a lead of 2:21 minutes over the peloton that quickly decided to bring it back closer to the 1:30 minute mark within five kilometres. At the first sprint of the day in Red Hill, the breakaway rolled over the line with Hill extended his lead in the points classification. The gap continued to decrease as they made their way from Red Hill to Balnarring for the second sprint.

On approach to the sprint point, Beppu attacked the group to ride solo off the front. With the breakaway shattering, Ewan sat up to join the peloton before Shaw was also absorbed with Hill in lone pursuit.

Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) and Travis Meyer (Drapac) bridged across to Hill with Beppu’s presence confirming the second four-rider breakaway of the stage.

Catching the break on the lower slopes, Ian Boswell bossed the front of the peloton with Sky occupying the first six places on the road as Jack Bobridge attached himself to Froome’s wheel. Within sight of the finish line, KOM leader Chris Harper (State of Matter/Maap) attacked in search of points but was reeled in by Froome who passed him to pick up the maximum 24 points on offer.

Boswell and Henao were leading the Team Sky train up for the penultimate ascent of the climb, setting a fierce tempo. Having passed through the finish arch, Cooper decided to attack with Froome the only rider capable of following.

Froome refused to take a turn on the front as Cooper time trialled around the loop while ONE Pro Cycling, UnitedHealthcare, Trek-Segafredo, Drapac and Orica-GreenEdge took up the chase. At the base of the final ascent of Arthurs Seat, Froome rode away from Cooper as the remnants of the peloton closed to within 13 seconds.

With Froome riding away to the victory. Howson made his move but there would be no stopping the two-time Tour de France winner sealing the first British win since Bradley Wiggins in 2009.

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