Flakemore sprints to the win in West Mooreville

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Campbell Flakemore (Genesys) has won the final road stage of the Tour of Tasmania by winning a two-man sprint against Bradley Linfield (Plan B Racing). Sam McCallum (Polygon) outsprinted Neil Van Der Ploeg (Search2Retain) for the final podium spot.

The four riders had been part of an earlier eight-man breakaway that formed early in the 77.9km stage. The group continued to work well together until it began to split in the final 10km.

“I knew people thought I might be up there in the general classification but it’s such a hard tour,” said Flakemore.

“I had a bad day on the second stage. You have one bad day here and you can lose 10 minutes.”

There was no significant change to the general classification with Lachlan Norris (Drapac) holding the leader’s jersey entering the final stage tomorrow. He did however, extend his margin to 0:14 to Mark O’Brien (Budget Forklifts) and 0:51 to Nathan Earle (Genesys) who sit in second and third respectively entering the final day of the tour tomorrow.

"The boys rode so well," Norris said at the finish.

"I was just sitting there with seven guys in front of me today. All of the boys just covered everything.

"I’m pretty confident we can (keep the yellow jersey)."

The afternoon stage began with a rapid tempo, instigated before the from Burnie to West Mooreville really began. It was during the 10km neutral zone that a over-zealous commissare decided to ‘control’ the race at a pace that had team managers suggesting it would have been easier to begin the race immediately.

Once the flagged was finally dropped after 12km and a number of mechanicals, the race got underway. The first 25km would climb steadily uphill before the biggest test of the day at the half way mark, a 3.5km climb that averaged almost 95. The peloton would surely be split by the top of the climb just before South Riana.

The first KOM came within the opening 10km of the stage giving those with fresher legs to opportunity to attack the peloton. However the overall race leader Lachlan Norris (Drapac) was keen to extend his 0:11 lead to second-place Mark O’Brien (Budget Forklifts) and promptly took a one-second bonus on the first KOM. Sam Sutelle (Suzuki – Trek) took maximum points while Ed White (GPM – Wilson Racing) was second.

By the day’s second KOM it was Campbell Flakemore (Genesys), Brodie Talbot (Central Coast) and Sam McCallum (Polygon) who crested the climb in that order while attempting to increase their lead on the suffering peloton. With the gap nearing 45 seconds a number of riders attacked the bunch and went in pursuit of the leading trio.

Niel Van Der Ploeg (Search2Retain) was part of the chase group and promptly won the only sprint in the race. The lead group had swelled to eight riders with Brad Linfield (Plan B Racing), Jay Bourke (Team Downunder), Harry Carpenter (SASI) and Peter Herzig (Budget Forklifts) helping to stretch the gap back to the bunch which was approaching two minutes.

Bourke took out the fourth climb of the day with Talbot and Sprint leader Van Der Ploeg in second and third respectively. Posing no real threat to the general classification, with Herzig the best placed at 06:00 from Norris’s lead, the Drapac team were happy to control the pace of the peloton to protect the lead.

With little more than 30km remaining the gap to the leading group of eight was at two minutes however at the top of the final KOM of the stage, the gap was pushing out toward three minutes. At the top it was Bourke who took maximum points over Talbot and Linfield.

Entering the final 10km the Drapac team was still on the front as they brought the gap back to under 2:30. It would seem the breakaway would stay away and with Van Der Ploeg the best sprinter of the group, would he take his first stage win of the Tour.

Talbot had clearly worked too hard on the climbs and with 8km to go he was dropped as the attacks began to fire. Bourke was the first one to try his luck, reducing the group to 7 riders. Shortly after Talbot it was Herzig who was dropped. The Budget Forklifts rider started the day ninth on the general classification.

With 4km to go McCallum and Carpenter were dropped leaving Van Der Ploeg, Linfield, Bourke and Flakemore to battle the final minutes of the race. A little under 2km later and Van Der Ploeg and Bourke were unhitched from the break as Linfield and Flakemore quickly established a winning gap over the dropped breakaway companions.

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