Blake Quick continues winning form with stage 2 victory at Santos Festival of Cycling

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Criterium winner Blake Quick (InForm TMX MAKE) continued his winning run of the Australian season on stage 2 of the men's race at the Santos Festival of Cycling, taking the sprint in Woodside after the bunch caught a late attack on the final run into the line.

Jensen Plowright, racing for Team Westpac in his Groupama-FDJ colours, crossed the line in second place but was penalised for an irregular sprint and relegated to the back of the group, so Cameron Scott (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast)  was awarded second and King of the Mountain jersey wearer Ben Hill (CCS Cycling) took third. 

"My team do a really good job of keeping me out of the wind and dropping me off at the perfect time," said Quick, who has also swept up the U23 Australian road race title and Lexus of Blackburn Bay Crits this month. 

“It worked out really well at the end. We had a few boys riding when it was coming down, then right at the end, probably 900m to go, when Rudy [Porter] launched, BJ [Brenton Jones] was on him. When BJ went it was just so hard, no one was going anywhere and we just finished in the same position we started."

The relegation of Plowright makes it the second day in a row where a penalty has had a big impact on the results board. On Thursday stage 1 solo winner and overall leader James Whelan was stripped of one minute of his hard-earned gap due to a controversial penalty for slipstreaming after an early bike problem.

Hill's third place, and the time bonuses that go with it, also mean Whelan had a couple of seconds shaved from his lead, with the rider from Canberra now in second place 25 seconds back. 

While Whelan finished with the lead bunch along with key rivals Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange-Jayco), Brendan Johnston (Giant Racing) and Chris Harper (Villawood), there were bigger shifts in GC behind them. Luke Plapp (Team Garmin Australia) slipped nearly two minutes back after suffering a late flat when the pace was on in pursuit of a break.

"About 15km to go the front wheel punctured and I almost lost it around the corner so it was a long chase back," Plapp said. "We did what we could but couldn’t get there. It's a bit of a shame we are out of the race [GC] now, but Willunga tomorrow and we go for the stage honours.”

There are now 13 riders within 33 seconds of the lead ahead of the final stage to the top of Willunga Hill, setting up a thrilling finale, with Richie Porte also hoping to end the race with a final victory.  

How it unfolded

The 112.9km stage started at the top of Mount Lofty, rolling down the winding road before the flag dropped for racing to begin. 

Wearing his Jumbo-Visma colours Rohan Dennis (Villawood) struck out early with Callum Scotson (BikeExchange-Jayco) on his wheel but it was a short lived attack.

KOM jersey wearer Hill was at the front in the race for the first mountain points of the day, with nearly 90 km to go, then the key break of the day formed quickly and already with a minute gap with 80 kilometres to go. 

It included Ben Dyball (Aus II) –  who wore the sprint jersey at the end of the day after taking the Echunga points, former Qhubeka NextHash rider Dylan Sunderland (Team Westpac), Carter Bettles (ARA Pro Racing Sunshine Coast), Torben Partridge-Madsen (CCS Cycling), Tom Chester (Rauland Development)  and Robert Parker (Onyva Racing). 

The group of six held firm as the race headed into the four laps of the finishing circuit but ultimately became a group of three, with Dyball, Sunderland and Bettles proving too strong for the rest of their companions at about 30km to go. 

With a gap of about two minutes and no particularly dangerous riders on the overall, there wasn’t too much pressure on Team BridgeLane to reel them back in, but others clearly did want to. 

Team Garmin Australia was working at the front, as was InForm TMX MAKE, so that by around 12 kilometres to go the gap had dropped to about a minute. Then Dennis put a nail in the coffin with a power surge to help Harper’s GC position.

The group were caught during the last lap but it wasn’t the last attack, with 18 year-old Dylan George (Team Garmin Australia) trying to salvage the day for the team. He clipped off the front late and held the gap for a while but was swept up tantalisingly close to the line on the long straight run into the finish. 

That left it up up to sprinters to fight for victory and it was another chance that Quick.