Giacoppo wins stage 1 of Tour de Taiwan

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Stage 1 of the newly upgraded Tour de Taiwan has given Australia’s Anthony Giacoppo the opportunity to grab his first international victory at UCI 2.1 level. The 25-year-old from Genesys Wealth Adviser jumped out of a group of six breakaway riders to anticipate an expected bunch sprint in front of the Taipei City Hall and the 528-metres high Taipei 101 tower at the end of a 52-km long race in the streets of the Taiwanese capital.

It was a surprise for the Western Australian to beat the Saxo Bank team that had three cards to play with Argentine’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo, who won the bunch sprint for 7th place thirteen seconds later, Japan’s Takashi Miyazawa who finished last in the front group and Jonathan Cantwell, who was the Australian national criterium champion one year prior to Giacoppo, the current title holder.

“I didn’t come in to this race expecting to win,” Giacoppo explained. “I only knew that if I had the chance, I’d try to sprint with the best, but I got into that group and I realized that it was made of good riders, so it could work. We rode hard and it paid off.”

On paper, Giacoppo was the fastest of the group that went away at half way with Miyazawa, Feng Chun Kai (Action Cycling Team), Wu Po Hung (Senter Merida), Taiji Nishitani (Japan), Rhys Pollock (Drapac) and Antonio Parrinello (Androni), who got dropped in the last lap. But Giacoppo didn’t wait for a proper sprint.

“I came through the last few corners on the front,” the Australian said. “I got enough space that I’d gap everyone. In the third last corner, I went to the right. Once I came in to the finish straight, I had a good advantage.”

It was a brilliant win by Giacoppo, who started the year on a high note when he won the third leg of the Bay Crits in Portarlington, Victoria, beating a strong contingent of riders from GreenEdge on January 3rd. “My teammates last year Nathan Haas and Steele Van Hoff moved to Garmin-Barracuda and their feeder team respectively, so I hope this win at the Tour de Taiwan will increase my chance to step up to the highest level as well,” said Giacoppo, who will soon quit his full-time job in a bike shop in Perth to move to Tasmania and ride professionally under Genesys’ team manager Andrew Christie-Johnson.

“In the past three years, we’ve had one of our riders to join a Pro Team every year,” Christie-Johnson pointed out, citing Richie Porte to Saxo Bank in 2009, William Clarke to Leopard-Trek in 2010 and Haas to Garmin-Barracuda in 2011. Giacoppo who was born to an Italian father from Messina and a Dutch mother from Maastricht seems to be next in line.

“My near future is to try and hold on to the jersey at the Tour de Taiwan,” Giacoppo concluded. “I have a good lead to defend.”