Caleb Ewan wins in Williamstown en route to third Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic overall title

The Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic came to what seemed an inevitable conclusion as Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) won the field sprint in Williamstown on Monday. He handily held off Brenton Jones (Drapac) for the top step of the podium. Alex Edmondson, Ewan's teammates, sprinted in for third.

It is Ewan's 10th stage victory over four years and his third overall title.

"The first win was the most exciting, but they're all special," Ewan said from the podium.

The 21-year-old's first four stage wins and overall victory came before he turned professional. The subsequent results came with the support of his Australian-registered WorldTour squad.

"The team certainly makes my job easier," Ewan said. "They were amazing all weekend."

Ewan's teammates, former Australian road champion Luke Durbridge and neo-pro Jack Haig, rode the front of the 60-minute race nearly from start to finish.

A two-man breakaway, featuring sprint classification winner Robbie Hucker (Avanti IsoWhey) and Josh Taylor (State of the Matter / MAAP), went off the front early. The duo proved unable to extend their advantage beyond a handful of seconds. A solo move countered the catch of the early break, but the gap was short-lived.

By the mid-point of the race, the field was back together, and it would stay together until the race's conclusion. The yellow jersey, following his teammates' wheels, was always near but never on the front.

"Look – the boys again," Ewan said. "I always say it. They were so strong. They rode the whole race on the front. They were so impressive. Keeping me up near the front makes it a lot smoother for me, so I can save a lot of energy."

A crash on the back-end of the course decimated the field before the finish. Ultimately only 20 of the 64 starters contested the sprint.

Ewan jumped before the last corner and led the charge to the line.

"I've done the same thing a couple times before," Ewan said. "I've kicked before the corner. I think that's the way you have to do it here. I thought, 'If I can come out of the corner all right, I should have it.'"

"I thought I had braked enough going into it, but as I was through it, I was thinking: 'Oh gosh. I'm going a bit fast.' I got around it all right. I had a little gap coming out of it. It's not far from that corner to the finish, so you really have to go through it in first place to win here."

From Williamstown, Ewan heads to Ballarat. He'll race the Australian National Road Championships, contesting both the criterium and the road race. Asked how he rates his chances for next Sunday's road race, Ewan insists that he will line up without pressure.

"We've got Gerro [Simon Gerrans] there and other guys that can go well," Ewan said. "There's no pressure on me there. I'll just do my thing and see if I can get around."

Early attack nets Lizzie Williams victory on Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic final day as Gracie Elvin wins series overall

Lizzie Williams (Orica-AIS) parlayed an opportunistic attack into a stage win on the final day of the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic in Williamstown on Monday. Jumping at the first of two intermediate sprints, Williams initiated a two-rider breakaway with Julie Leth (Alé Australia). The duo would pocket more than a minute over the peloton before the conclusion of the 45-minute race. Yellow jersey Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS) finished safely in the bunch to win the series overall.

"I'm just so happy to get the overall win and the first win of the season," said Williams. "It's exciting times for our team, I think.

"We were fine to come down to a sprint. We were to set up a solid lead-out for Sarah Roy and keep Gracie up there, but I also had an opportunity to take a chance.

"I could tell I was feeling good on the rollers," said Williams. "You can just tell if you're going to have a good day. I was like – I'm going to go full-gas and see what happens. And it worked."

With five minutes still to race, Williams put in a dig and rode a tiring Leth off her wheel. Coming just short of lapping the field, Williams soloed across the line to take her first win since SwissEver GP Cham-Hagendorn last year. Sixteen seconds later, Leth came to the finish.

"I was doing the easier turns," admitted Williams. "[Julie] was doing the turns in the wind. I had a good tailwind turn. We were sharing the load, working really well, but I could tell she was struggling."

"I thought: 'I'm going to take the chance. I reckon I can ride her off my wheel.' And yeah – I did."

Kajihara Yumi (Novotel Geelong/Japan) slipped away from the peloton before the finish to snag the final spot on the podium. Portarlington winner Valentina Scandolara (Alé Cipollini) proved best of the rest beating Elvin in the field sprint. Fifth place proved sufficient for Elvin, a two-time Australian road champion, to take her first Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic overall victory.

"I'm really proud of myself and the team," said Elvin. "[Winning the series is] something I wanted to do at some point in my career but probably not this year. To have done it now is awesome. I've set myself up for the rest of the year with a lot of confidence."

Elvin and her teammates will head to Buninyong as clear favourites to secure the squad's fourth Australian road title in five years. Amanda Spratt won the green and gold for the Australian-registered squad in its maiden season. Elvin was back-to-back champion in 2013-2014.

"I wanted to stay a little bit under the radar this week and just ride around for form, but I think I've got a big target on my back again," said Elvin with a laugh. "I'm really looking forward to the road race at Nationals. It's going to be a great one – especially with the live coverage."

"We've got a few options," added Williams. "We'll use our numbers to our advantage. We just want to take the jersey to Europe. It doesn't really matter who."  

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