Will Clarke wins opening stage of Tour de Perth

Drapac's Will Clarke proved too fast in the opening stage of the 2014 National Road Series (NRS) in Fremantle during the 45km criterium to kick start the Tour de Perth. Shannon Johnson (CharterMason) was second while Anthony Giacoppo (Avanti Racing) rounded out the podium in a crash marred finish.

Clarke's teammate and West Australian Travis Meyer proved his strength early on as he attacked a reduced peloton with fellow Perth local Michael Freiberg (Hall Cycle Training), although with a peloton hungry for a sprint finish, there would be no successful break during the twilight race.

A crash on the final straight derailed the sprinters chance of glory and it was Clarke who came out on top.

"It was just really hectic," said Clarke. "Guys were fighting for wheels and unfortunately there was a crash there at the end.

"The plan was to try and get some time in the intermediate sprints and I found myself there at the end in a good position to sprint. It was such a tight course you had to be at the front or basically your race was over, it was so vital."

Clarke leads the Tour by four seconds thanks to bonus seconds ahead of  Giacoppo while Alex Wohler (Budget Forklifts) sits in third place, seven seconds in arrears. Clarke also leads the sprint classification.

"The team's goal is to have a good overall result here," said Clarke. "There are three tough stages to come, especially tomorrow which is going to be quite selective but then we've got a time trial and another hard stage to finish [the Tour] off.

"We've got a strong, powerful team and I think we'll be fighting for a good overall result."