Henderson claims race one win in reduced field

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GreenEdge was denied a dream start to 2012 with both their men's and women's teams unable to capture top spot on the podium in the opening race of the Jayco Bay Classic in Geelong on Sunday evening.

In the women's race, Chloe Hosking (Total Rush – Hyster) was able to turn around her race in the dying laps after she suffered a puncture while in the lead group off the front, to eventually claim a dashing solo victory. The race had been neutralised with five laps in the remaining following a crash on one of the hotdog circuit's tight corners. For Hosking, a former under 23 national criterium champion, it was a win that had been six years in the making.

Hosking, who has signed for Specialized – lululemon said that the win was an important step towards gaining selection for the London Olympic Games in July.

"I'm up for the challenge, I want to be at the Olympic Games and I've just got to keep doing the right moves to get there," the 21 year-old said.

"Today is one of those steps."

The Canberran also admitted it had been hard in the lead up to the race with so much hype and focus surrounding the GreenEdge-AIS outfit in their debut appearance.

"I was like 'am I racing?'... look, we came in as underdogs and I guess we've surprised a lot of people," Hosking explained with her Total Rush – Hyster team seemingly outnumbered with herself and Lauren Rowney as ‘name' riders in comparison to some of the other teams in the field.

"I think hats off should go to the GreenEdge girls, they rode really awesome today and they made the race," she conceded. "I just did the right move at the right time."

GreenEdge appeared promising from the opening laps, despite the field being light on pace. Shara Gillow, Amanda Spratt and Jessie Maclean were all aggressive at the front of the bunch. Hosking was keen to keep an eye on her rivals and took the first intermediate sprint, ahead of Spratt and plucky Sue Forsyth from Pitcher Partners who spent the afternoon marking any moves.

The break of the day was confirmed soon after Gillow took and uncontested second sprint and As the laps ticked down, Loren Rowney, Chloe Hosking (Total Rush – Hyster), Peta Mullens (BikeExchange Dream Team), Maclean, Gillow (GreenEdge – AIS), Sue Forsyth (Pitcher Partners) and Sinead Noonan (Jayc o – AIS) had gained their biggest advantage, and a hard-fought one at that, over the rest of the field at 15 seconds. However, it looked as though that group was about to lose it's arguably most-dangerous member with Hosking forced to the side of the circuit with a puncture while the remaining members if GreenEdge led the main bunch with BikeExchange sitting on their wheels.

A crash with six laps remaining that brought down Pitcher Partners' workhorse, Trudy Van der Straaten with a suspected broken collarbone and scapula, forced the race to be neutralised and with five laps left to race, any advantages were nullified.

Tiffany Cromwell (GreenEdge) was first to go off the front, in a brave solo effort before Hosking bridged the gap and with three laps remaining was never challenged. Melissa Hoskins (GreenEdge) who in 2011 won the Begijnendijk Kermesse with a killer sprint, charged home for second while defending series winner, Rochelle Gilmore (BikeExchange Dream Team) took third in her comeback race from injury.

Hoskins was very pleased to have nabbed the first podium effort for her team in its very first race.

"I guess it came down to the point where we had to make a decision whether to go or not and I saw Tiff was on her last legs so I made the call with Jessie, she's one of the best lead out girls that I've ever worked with," Hoskins explained. "She brought me my first win in Europe, I have a lot of trust in her and she's the one that started it. I just had to finish it off for me team because they'd done so well all day."

Kiwi Henderson upstages Aussie rivals

At age 35, Greg Henderson (Degani Bakery Cafe) showed there is plenty of life left in his sprinting legs yet, besting eight of his remaining 15 competitors to claim the opening men's race of the Jayco Bay Classic in Geelong.

"It was a historical day for Australian cycling with the debut of GreenEdge and it was an honour to be a part of it," Henderson said post-race after defeating Chris Sutton (Urban) and Allan Davis (GreenEdge) in the final sprint.

"It seemed like they were pretty happy with anyone who was up the break. I think they were pretty desperate to win today but when you've got so many riders in a group like that, it sort of almost works against you."

Although he had been playing down his chances of back-to-back overall wins at the event, GreenEdge's Matt Goss is in all likelihood out of contention for the 2012 title after he, along with the bulk of the field were nearly lapped with around 15 minutes of the one hour criterium remaining.

The hot pace was set early with Henderson's teammate Zak Dempster, Nathan Haas (Bikebug) and Pat Lane (Mitchelton Wines – Lowe Farms) edging away from the main bunch. Around five laps in, young gun Caleb Ewan (NSWIS), joined the group along with GreenEdge's Mitch Docker, Bernie Sulzberger (Urban Hotels), and Baden Cooke (Mitchelton Wines – Lowe Farms).

The 17-year-old NSWIS rider, from Bowral in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, later edged away from the group on his own and looked almost in time trial mode and he worked to claim the first points of the opening intermediate sprint. Docker and Dempster fought it out for the remainder.

Ewan couldn't hold on though and his surrender then resulted in the field being brought back together for a short while before the hammer went down once again just after the halfway mark. This time it was much the same as it had been earlier, with Dean Windsor (Degani Bakery Cafe), Wes Sulzberger (GreenEdge), Cooke, Wes Sulzberger, Haas gaining half a lap on the field. Chasing hard 12 seconds back was Allan Davis (GreenEdge), Dempster, Anthony Giacoppo (BikeBug), James Mowatt (Rapido Cycles – Four Points Geelong) with Lane and Ewan later fighting to get on the back of the group. That battle at the front resulted in the rest of the field being eliminated.

With the field down to 15, Windsor, Haas, Cooke and Bernie Sulzberger attacked again, before Lane made a daring move off the front with seven laps remaining. Despite a chase by Ewan with five to go, Lane held firm until the final lap when he was swallowed by the bunch.

"Pat Lane did an awesome job," Henderson admitted. "But I had two team-mates to help me in Dean Windsor and Zak Dempster and they did a fantastic job.

"I told them to ride tempo because I knew Pat would come back to us. I was able to stay out of trouble which was important and I've been doing a lot of training. It paid off today."

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