Goesinnen prevails over Donnelly for Warrnambool win

Flying Dutchman Floris Goesinnen (Drapac Professional Cycling) has won the 2012 Melbourne to Warrnambool, the classic’s first international winner since Swede Jonas Ljungblad in 2005, after just over seven hours of racing.

Aaron Donnelly (Aussie Farmers Direct) was second with the pair shooting off the front of a 40-odd-man peloton with 40 kilometres to go with a maximum advantage of 1:44.

The distance from the finish was the biggest obstruction to the win, but remarkably, the pair was able to hang on with the gap hovering at just over a minute with 10 kilometres left to the finish in Warrnambool.

Plan B Racing's Bradeley Hall was third, 35-seconds in arrears leading home the remnants of the bunch.

It was 28-year-old Goesinnen's second win of the season after taking out the second stage of the Flèche du Sud in Luxembourg as part of Drapac's annual European sojourn. He is in his second year with Drapac, having previously ridden with Skil-Shimano four five years.

"Everybody in Australia and even in Europe knows the Melbourne to Warrnambool," Goesinnen said, proud to have won. "Honestly, the Melbourne to Warrnambool was the only race I knew about before I came over, so it's pretty cool to win it."

Meantime, Donnelly's result backed up his third overall at the Tour of Murray River and the sprint classification win at the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic last month.

Speaking to Cyclingnews following his breakthrough result, given it was his first race over 200km, Donnelly was struggling to find the words to enunciate just how happy he was.

"I'm speechless... Ecstatic!"

The 21-year-old had been able to say a little bit more in the break to his Dutch companion.

"We were just giving a lot of encouragement to each other," explained Donnelly.

The Wollongong-native wasn't convinced they would succeed until there was just three kilometres remaining.

"About 15km to go we were given two minutes and then I was pretty confident we could stay away but then it came back to 1:30 really quickly so I was starting to get a bit nervous. At three or four kilometres to go I knew we had it."

The race had presented as Drapac's to lose and they certainly didn't disappoint with a number of riders capable of the win. Rhys Pollock walked away the day's SEW Eurodrive Sprint Championship winner, thanks to his efforts in the day's main breakaway. Pollock, 2010 overall winner also won the Lady Bay Resort King of the Mountains. As a team, the Melbourne-based outfit was rewarded with  the team classification ahead of Genesys Wealth Advisers and SASI.

The race got underway from Werribee Racecourse on Melbourne's outskirts under still conditions, very much so the calm before the storm. A group of 15 riders moved away from the front of the peloton but it was gruppo compatto along Bulban Road. A large crash with took down around 30 riders with around 10km of racing complete saw the field split in three, with several big names including Lachlan Norris (Drapac) and Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys Wealth Advisers) caught up in the mess.

Fraser Northey (SASI) wins first intermediate sprint from Brett Franklin and Daniel Bonello (Plan B Racing) with the pace helping the first split to a 29 second advantage by the left-hand turn into Forest Road North with the lead bunch consisting of Will Walker, Gordon McCauley (Drapac), Peter Herzig (Budget Forklifts), Andrew Roe, Alex Edmondson (SASI), Alex Smyth, Daniel Bonello (Plan B) and Andrew Crawley (GPM-Wilson Racing).

The group was caught by a determined chase at the race hit the first KOM at the 40km mark led by Genesys who had missed out on the break. Josh Taylor (GPM - Wilson Racing) was first over the top.

Race was now in five distinct groups with a lead group of three, a chase group and a dropped group fighting for survival.

With the climb out of the way, with GPM - Wilson Racing's Sam Rutherford leading the way the front groups came together but a new group of nine riders were soon away.

McCauley, Rhys Pollock (Drapac), Brenton Jones (Genesys), Josh Berry (Suzuki / Trek), Sean McCarthy (Budget Forklifts) Ed White, Rutherford (GPM - Wilson Racing), Liam Dove (Plan B Racing), Northey (SASI) moving out to an advantage of 4:30. Three riders were in hot pursuit - Sam Witmitz (Budget Forklifts), Peter Smith (Plan B Racing) and Jarrod Moroni (SEW Eurodrive) and the lead group of nine was soon 12.

With a now 12-man strong group leading the race, the break's advantage was at 6:30 with 110km of racing complete. The break started to come back with Genesys driving the front of the bunch but the weather was beginning to close in with half of the total distance covered.

By the time the race was closing in on Camperdown, with less than 100km remaining the gap was down to 3:12 but their fortunes were doomed with the riders no longer working together.

With the chase on, Adam Murchie (Bikebug.com - Forza Capital) and 1988 Seoul Olympian, 50-year-old Stephen Fairless (Aussie Farmers Direct) set out into no man's land in a bid to join the faltering breakaway. With the lead group just over two minutes ahead, the pair made contact and with 180km done, McCarthy was shelled. The pressure continued despite the efforts of Fairless to rally the group, with Berry the next rider to drop away and the gap down to just 55 seconds heading to the Camperdown climb.

Pollock decided it was time to go and attacked in a solo effort on the climb as the field began to split. The move earned Pollock the Victorian 200km Championships which is awarded as part of the one-day classic.

McCauley, was also unwilling to relent and took second on the KOM behind Pollock, with Genesys' Nathan Earle bridging across to the break that was still hanging on for third. Soon after, Pollock was caught leaving a main group of 60 riders.

With the race approaching Terang, NRS leader Luke Davison (Budget Forklifts), Floris Goesinnen (Drapac), Edmondson and Neil Van Der Ploeg (search2retain) moved ahead briefly only to be brought back at the 215km mark.

Goesinnen however wasn't finished and again escaped off the front with Aaron Donnelly (Aussie Farmers Direct) with 40km left to race. Ten kilometres of racing ahead of the peloton earned the pair a one-minute lead with Budget and Genesys leading a determined chase.

With 20km to go the gap was out to 1:44 with the peloton seemingly lacking a strong group to lead a cohesive chase. That number did come down however, with most gains made by the peloton as Goesinnen and Donnelly were fighting it out in the final five kilometres.

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