Watson claims overall victory on 20th birthday

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Calvin Watson (Jayco-VIS-Apollo) will do well to top his 20th birthday, claiming the overall win at the 60th Jayco Herald Sun Tour - the youngest-ever victor of the prestigious stage race. Watson began the day in second overall, 14 seconds behind yellow jersey Aaron Donnelly (Huon-Genesys). Nathan Earle (Huon-Genesys) capitalised on his solid climbing form to win the stage ahead of Dan McConnell (Suzuki-Bontrager) and Mark O'Brien (SASI).

As expected the two laps of Arthurs Seat on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula decided the title, with Watson first of the contenders across the finish line in 21st place 55 seconds in arrears of Earle, with Kiwi Josh Atkins (Gray's Online New Zealand National Team), who started the day 17 seconds back, in 40th place, over two minutes down. Donnelly fell back to second overall, with Atkins third in the final standings.

For a clearly emotional Watson, the win was a vindication having been dropped from the Australian under 23 development squad for the 2013 season.

"I couldn't be happier with this result, it means so much," he said at the finish. "To be on an honour roll with absolute champions in Australian cycling, I'm so happy. Thanks so much to all the VIS guys, we came here as underdogs and we really showed the guys that we weren't here to mess around."

Speaking before the 93km stage got underway at Moonah Links, Watson told Cyclingnews that he was "quietly confident" of claiming the win at day's end but was wary of noted climber, Josh Atkins.

"I think to be honest Josh is a real threat; he's a classy crafty bike rider," Watson admitted.

"To an extent we can sit back and play the dark horse but a lot of the guys are still looking at us. We've got to help out and follow the best guys."

Watson in fact, had the upper hand having grown up locally in Frankston, 15kms away with Arthurs Seat a regular training ground.

"I climb this climb twice a week," he explained. "This is my backyard and I couldn't ask for a better place to train because this is what it's all about. I knew the climb back to front. I knew where I could ease off and where I would have to dig deep and every corner and that really played into our hands."

Stage winner, Earle, had led the race with Simon Clarke (Australian National Team) and O'Brien on the first ascent of the tricky climb. He came under pressure from Clarke's teammates, Nathan Haas and Gerrans heading into the final ascent but the big name squad fell back around him as the climb went on.

"It's a really special win for me," said Earle. "I've had ankle surgery and knee injuries - I've been through a lot. To come and get a win and get the confidence back before nationals - a win for the team. They've stuck by me, they haven't let me go when I've had my injuries so to come here and to win is just really special."

It was a bittersweet victory for the Huon-Genesys squad with Donnelly losing the overall lead having worn yellow since day two when he took the stage win in Bendigo.

"He couldn't hold on," said Earle. "We did the best we could for him and looked after him the best we can and at the end of the day that's all you can do. It was up to him at the end there and unfortunately he didn't quite have the legs. He's not quite suited to the climb so the next best thing was to come out and win the stage and I think he still got a podium overall. We could have done better but this is a pretty good situation."

How it unfolded...

Numerous attacks peppered the race heading into the first climb of the day, a Category 4 on Boneo Road. It was unsurprising to see KOM leader Nathan Haas (Australian National Team) leading the charge. The defending champion quickly earned a gap of 100 metres on the field. Haas was first across the line from Adam Phelan (Degani Bakery Cafe World Tour Academy) and Chris Jory (GPM Data#3), though
his stranglehold on the classification was never in doubt.

The bunch was soon back together but such was the pace that the peloton stretched for a good 200 metres in length.

A small group of riders moved away from the field, with Jack Anderson (Budget Forklifts), Rhys Pollock (Drapac), Jordan Kerby (Suzuki Bontrager), Damien Howson (Degani Bakery Cafe World Tour Academy), Richard Handley (Rapha Condor JLT), Pat Shaw (Huon - Genesys), Stuart O'Grady (Australian National Team) and James Oram (Gray's Online New Zealand National Team) opening a gap of 300 metres at the 17km mark. Bernard Sulzberger (Drapac) was next to join the break with green jersey wearer Neil Van Der Ploeg (search2retain p/b health.com.au) and Karl Evans (Budget Forklifts) also out front. A further chasing trio of Joe Lewis (GPM Data#3), Brendan Johnston (Suzuki Bontrager) and Mike Northey (Gray's Online New Zealand National Team) would also decide that the peloton was not for them.

With 20km of racing down, the two chase groups merged and three kilometres further down the road, a solid breakaway formed as Jayco-VIS-Apollo took to the front of the peloton. The gap began to grow with the Australian National Team seemingly determined to blow apart the race with O'Grady dictating the pace of the front group. After 34km of racing, the gap was 1:09.

Van Der Ploeg was allowed to take maximum points on the first sprint of the day ahead of Lewis and Sulzberger but the search2retain rider, though now sitting on equal points as classification leader Donnelly, would lose out courtesy of the latter's stage victory.

The breakaway reached its maximum advantage of 1:47 at the 60km mark, and with just 33 km left to race and the first circuit of Arthurs Seat looming, the peloton decided enough was enough. Race radio reported that the "hammer is down" and the peloton had the breakaway in sight for the first time in quite a while with Genesys doing their bit on the front of the chase. O'Grady and Anderson pushed the pace to 70km/h for the break but at the base of the KOM, the gap had narrowed to 45 seconds, quickly diminishing to nothing and the Australian National Team's plan to launch Simon Clarke and Simon Gerrans up the climb, swung into action.

O'Grady had been a force for the breakaway and seemed satisfied of the effort, which remarkably gave little away about the virus he'd been battling most of the week.

"I've been feeling pretty average the last few days so today was just chalk and cheese compared to the last few days," he told Cyclingnews. "It was nice to get out there and have a bit of a crack. It's always nice to do something at the Sun Tour and help the boys out.

"We came here with big ambitions like we do in every race," he continued. "I think people always expect more because of the names but to be honest we were probably at about 50 per cent of our form. We've got our use our nous more than our power."

Damien Howson (Degani Bakery Cafe World Tour Academy) was first man to crest Arthurs Seat, holding a 17 second advantage over Clarke and Earle. Shortly after, came another wave of riders headed up by Gerrans, Shaw and leader on the road Brad Linfield was next, a further 14 seconds in arrears. Watson was tucked into the next big group to come through but had the protection of three teammates while Donnelly continued to push in the fourth group across the top.

By the time the various groups hit the bottom of the descent, the riders swarmed together as they headed for the final loop to the top and a group of 31 would fight it out for the high stakes prize. Donnelly dropped off the back and had soon lost touch to be 33 seconds in arrears while Gerrans and Haas led the way up the climb trailed by O'Brien and Earle. Watson was hanging on, just 15 seconds behind the reigning Australian Road Champion with one kilometre remaining of the three kilometre climb. Gerrans started to fall behind in the final few hundred metres, eventually finishing in 12th place while Clarke had the staying power. Earle continued the push to the summit, eventually clearing the finish line with a seven second advantage over McConnell with O'Brien a further two seconds back to round out the podium.

Clarke, fourth on the stage and 16 seconds behind Earle, believed that if the battle for GC had not come down to the wire, a stage win may have been on the cards for his team.

"That wrecked our game plan otherwise I think we could have come out in front," he told Cyclingnews. "But that's racing and we tried. I think I got fourth in the stage so we can't complain. It's been a good week for the four of us GreenEdge guys. It's been awesome preparation for the nationals and potentially the Tour Down Under for the guys doing it."

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