Katusha Sports' Marco Haller held on to his overall lead to win the 2019 Lexus Blackburn Bay Crits in Williamstown, Australia, on Thursday afternoon, while Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) took his second stage victory after having also won on Wednesday.
Both Haller's teammate Alex Dowsett and Lexus of Blackburn's Luke Durbridge worked hard to whittle the field down so that only the main contenders were left to battle it out for the stage and overall honours.
Miles Scotson has been active during the whole series, and will hope to take that good form into the Australian national championships road race on Sunday – a race that he won in 2017. He led the race into the final lap on the Williamstown circuit as part of a three-man move with MS All Stars teammate Heinrich Haussler and Novotel Geelong's Jay McCarthy.
Lotto Soudal's Roger Kluge, meanwhile, led the peloton just a few bike lengths behind, trying to set it up for teammate Ewan.
Haussler attacked on the back straight of the square circuit, but a huge jump from Ewan, having looked as though he may have been out of contention, gained him the lead in the final straight, and with it the stage win, from Brenton Jones (Lexus of Blackburn), with Haussler in third.
Fourth place for Haller, however, ensured that the Austrian sewed up the overall title, having won on the opening day on the Eastern Gardens circuit in Geelong.
"I'm relieved, as it was a hard series," Haller said at the finish. "It's been a super cool week – absolutely brilliant – and a great way to kick off the new year.
"We obviously didn’t want to take any risks, and we were expecting Caleb to strike again, but I wanted to make sure I finished high up," he said. "I tried to cover everything a little bit, and in the end it worked out."
Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal | 0:59:37 |
| 2 | Brenton Jones (Aus) Lexus of Blackburn | Row 1 - Cell 2 |
| 3 | Heinrich Haussler (Aus) MS All Stars | 0:00:02 |
| 4 | Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha Sport | 0:00:03 |
| 5 | Nathan Haas (Aus) Katusha Sport | Row 4 - Cell 2 |
| 6 | Ben Hill (Aus) MS All Stars | Row 5 - Cell 2 |
| 7 | Zak Dempster (Aus) MS All Stars | Row 6 - Cell 2 |
| 8 | Raphael Freienstein (Ger) Lexus Of Blackburn | 0:00:06 |
| 9 | Reece Tucknott (Aus) Velofit Santic Racing | Row 8 - Cell 2 |
| 10 | Cameron Ivory (Aus) GPM Stulz | Row 9 - Cell 2 |
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | Header Cell - Column 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha Sport) | 27 | pts |
| 2 | Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal | 24 | Row 1 - Cell 3 |
| 3 | Heinrich Haussler (Aus) MS All Stars | 18 | Row 2 - Cell 3 |
| 4 | Raphael Freienstein (Ger) Lexus Of Blackburn | 18 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
| 5 | Brenton Jones (Aus) Lexus of Blackburn | 13 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
| 6 | Michael Freiberg (Aus) Australian Cycling Academy | 13 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
| 7 | Nathan Haas (Aus) Katusha Sport | 10 | Row 6 - Cell 3 |
| 8 | Reece Tucknott (Aus) Velofit Santic Racing | 10 | Row 7 - Cell 3 |
| 9 | Jay McCarthy (Aus) Novotel Geelong City Of Greater Geelong | 9 | Row 8 - Cell 3 |
| 10 | Miles Scotson (Aus) MS All Stars | 8 | Row 9 - Cell 3 |
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