Shannon Johnson wins final stage of Tour de Perth

Joe Cooper (Avanti Racing) successfully defended his Woodside Tour de Perth title as the final stage was decided in a sprint with Victoria’s Shannon Johnson (CharterMason) beating home-town favourite Anthony Giacoppo (Avanti Racing) and Queensland’s Alex Wohler (Budget Forklifts)for the victory.

"The guys did an amazing job, I got dropped off a little bit early but I figured with the gear I was running, someone was going to have to go pretty fast to come over the top of me," Johnson said. "I started to get really tight with 20 metres to go but I heard them coming and I thought 'just one more kick' and it was just enough."

"My heart rate was the best part of 200bpm then and I think it was the longest 500 metres I've ever sprinted for [and] I can't thank my team enough."

Cooper's overall victory was due to his blistering time trial victory on the previous day repeating his victory from last year. After his win, Cooper, now leads the National Road Series aggregate.  Also on the podium was stage two victor Tim Roe (Budget Forklifts), four seconds off Cooper, while Avanti teammate Mitchell Lovelock-Fay finished in third place overall, 30 seconds in arrears.

"Today Budget Forklifts and Drapac wanted the win just as much as I did, and they wanted to dislodge me as much as they could, but the team stayed strong and we got the job done and I'm pretty happy with that," Cooper said after claiming the win.

"It's so important to come back and show that it wasn't just a one-off win last year, I'm definitely here to be a contender. This is much more important to me after being one minute and seven seconds down after the first stage. To come back from that deficit and to hold onto my lead today, I'm over the moon."

"I'm looking forward to the following rounds of the NRS. This is such a team sport, without my Avanti team today, I probably would have been spat out on the first lap so big ups to them."

The race for general classification meant fierce competition on the final 114km road race in Perry Lakes, with a six man breakaway establishing early into the race.

Lovelock-Fay, Wohler, West Australian Travis Meyer and his Drapac teammate Adam Phelan, Jayden Copp (Bianchi DCM Arbitrage) and Cru Halliday (Skoda St. George) jumped off the front of the peloton early and gained over a minute advantage on the field.

The group were eventually joined by William Clarke (Drapac) and Budget Forklifts teammates Michael Cupitt and Josh Prete, causing a split in the leading group resulting in Meyer, Lovelock-Fay, Prete and Wohler forming a new four man lead break.

However on the final two laps of the eight kilometre circuit, other teams joined the chase to ensure a bunch sprint.

The Subaru National Road Series continues next week with the men and women's Jarvis Subaru Adelaide Tour from April 3 - 6.

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