Anderson wins the opening stage at Woodside Tour de Perth

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Jack Anderson kicked-off the National Road Series in winning fashion by taking out Stage 1 at the Woodside Tour de Perth from an eight-rider breakaway that formed after the first of four laps around Rottnest Island. It was a near-perfect day for his Budget Forklifts squad who took second-place on the stage with Sam Horgan while Neil Van Der Ploeg (search2retain powered by health.com.au) finished in third.

Anderson has been on-song lately and continued his impressive run of form after finishing in second-place at the Oceania Road Championships, behind Orica GreenEdge's Cam Meyer, to take his first NRS victory of the New Year on Rottnest. His win also saw the Queenslander pull on the first race leader's jersey - which he will look to retain after tomorrow's time trial.

"One guy nipped off the front in the last k and no one wanted to lead it out, everyone was kind of looking at each other so I shot out after him with about 500, 400 to go," said Anderson to Cyclingnews about his race-winning move.

"They tried to get on me but I think I took the last corner a bit quicker and had enough in the tank to sprint and hold them off. I'm not the quickest guy in the world but if I could from a little way out and get a gap I ca hold them off. Sam [Horgan] was following the wheels and got second which was awesome," he added.

Third-placed Van Der Ploeg was one of the more favoured riders to win the stage from the breakaway group and was a little disappointed to miss out on the win.

"We had Eric and myself in the break, our two TT riders for this race, so were very happy with that," Van Der Ploeg told Cyclingnews. "[I] made a mess of the sprint and boxed myself out. When Eric was caught, he pulled to left which was where I was trying to sprint.

"I was a bit unlucky and [I'm] very dissapointed to miss such a good opportunity for the stage win but I'm happy with getting time but very annoyed that we botched the finish," he added.

It was a frantic start to the opening round of the National Road Series at the Tour de Perth with two crashes occuring inside the opening few kilometres of the race around Rottnest Island.

One of the worst off from the fall was Stuart Smith (search2retain-health who was taken to hospital for stitches to his head along with a good serving of road rash.

The narrow and twisting roads along the Island proved a little treacherous for some with a light rainfall making the roads perhaps a little slippery, while the first race of the year was undoubtedly a nervous one for many amongst the 140-rider peloton.

A group caught behind one of the early falls were accidentally sent the wrong way and this caused further grief in the bunch as the tackled the first of four 20km laps around Rottnest.

The first sprint was won by Michael Freiberg from the local Perth squad Bianchi-Lotto-Arbitrage while Neil Van Der Ploeg (search2retain-health) and Shaun McCarthy (Budget Forklifts) took the minor points.

After the chaos of the first lap a group eventually got away. Eight riders took off the front and extended their to approximately 30 seconds at the end of the second lap. A number of teams came to the front to patrol the bunch with local squad Bianchi-Lotto-Arbitrage setting the pace while Huon Salmon-Genesys were also present looking after the interest of their teammates ahead.

Neil Van Der Ploeg, Eric Sheppard (search2retain-health), Josh Taylor (GPM-Data#3), Sam Volkers (Pro Team Downunder), Jack Anderson, Sam Horgan (Budget Forklifts), Jack Haig and Joe Cooper (Huon-Genesys) were amongst those in the lead.

At the end of the third lap and the start of the final loop around Rottnest the leading group has extended their advantage to nearly one minute. With just 20km remaining of the 80km stage it would be a tough ask for the bunch to bring them back for the predicted bunch sprint.

The team of Bianchi-Lotto continued to work hard at the front and with 15km the group's lead had dropped to under 40 seconds but it remained stable over the closing 10km where the break continued to power along.

Coming into the narrow and damp finish line it was Anderson who had gapped his breakaway companions and had enough time to sit up and enjoy his first NRS victory while Horgan begun his celebratory salute just behind his teammate. Van Der Ploeg picked up another strong result after already performing at January's Road National Championships and Oceania Championships, to finish in third place.

Anthony Giacoppo (Huon-Genesys) lead the bunch home 37-seconds down on the winning group of Anderson.

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