Giacoppo wins the Tour of the Great South Coast

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Anthony Giacoppo has turned around the disappointment from the recent Tour of Gippsland by winning the overall at the inaugural Tour of the Great South Coast. The final stage was set to be a close fought battle between second place Neil Van Der Ploeg (Search2Retain) and Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) with the three separate by just 11 seconds.

Giacoppo however, proved too strong as Lapthorne was unable to unhitch the day’s yellow jersey wearer. Van Der Ploeg found himself distanced from Giacoppo and Lapthorne in the final kilometres and moved down to third overall, Lapthorne would finish in second place and just five seconds behind the Genesys rider.

The final stage at Tour of the Great South Coast was going to provide the greatest test and challenge for those riders looking to capture the overall classification or finish high up on the general classication.

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The 15.6km course would be held on familiar roads used for the Melbourne to Warrnambool – Australia’s longest one-day race. The circuit was a reverse format to how the ‘Warny’ is run but this would not make it any easier with one classified KOM tackled on each lap on exposed roads.

Riders not busy with team duties would have one last opportunity to show themselves off the front. It would take a strong and well organised breakaway to stay away as the challenging course would weed out tired legs very quickly.

At midday, the peloton began the 93.6km race with Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys) in the yellow jersey, closely followed by Neil Van Der Ploeg (Search2Retain) at 6 seconds and Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) trailing by a mere 11 seconds.

It took little time for the first breakaway of the day to form as Cam Peterson (RBS Morgans-ATS Pro Cycling) attacked the bunch, chased and joined by Roman Van Uden and Joseph Cooper (PureBlack) and Sam Rutherford (GPM-Wilson Racing). As the first climb began, Rutherford was detached from the front and was soon back in the peloton.

The peloton provided little comfort for tired riders and as the first climb began, riders were soon dropping off the bunch. Peterson took the first KOM points with Cooper and Van Uden taking the minor placings. Once over the climbs the breakaway stretched its lead to almost a minute and coming through the start/finish line for the first time, it was Van Uden who won the first of five intermediate sprints.

Drapac seemed content to control the pace of the peloton and maintained the gap to the breakaway to 55 seconds as the climb approached once again. The main field was clearly feeling the pressure as riders continued to be dropped out of the peloton. This didn’t stop the attacks as riders attempted to bridge to three-man breakaway. This split the bunch into small groups but the front three continued to work well together, Peterson again taking maximum points on the KOM.

While Peterson was content in taking the KOM points and protecting his teammate Ben Hill’s lead, it was Van Uden who rode across the sprint line in first with Cooper and Peterson in tow.

Entering the third lap the break had pushed their lead out to a minute, the attacks from the main field clearly interrupting the work of the Drapac team. The rain began to fall, making it tough for the entire field as the temperature dropped. Peterson took the KOM points again with Cooper and Van Uden happy to allow the RBS Morgans rider to cross the line uncontested.

As the peloton approached the KOM for the third time, a group of six riders jumped away in an attempt to join the front riders. Peter Herzig (Budget Forklifts) tried his luck at a solo move to reach the leading trio with Pat Shaw (Genesys), Robbie Hucker (Drapac) and George Tansley (SASI) in close pursuit.

Herzig was working hard over the top in an effort to close the gap to the leaders but couldn’t quite get there before the fast run down toward the finish line.

The three chasers were brought back by the peloton however, Herzig continued alone, reducing the gap to just 36 seconds behind the break. PureBlack led across the line for the fourth sprint with Cooper, Van Uden and Peterson nearly 2 minutes in front of the main field and Herzig now trailing by 1 minute.

Four riders quickly jumped across and joined Herzig. The breakaway was represented by Budget Forklifts, Genesys and RBS Morgans while the gap to the breakaway began to drop as fatigue began to show the fourth time up the main climb. Sensing the breakaway may be tiring, attacks came out of the reduced peloton with the time gap coming down under 1 minute.

The attacks finally began to make inroads into both the chase and the breakaway and Peterson was soon on his own, albeit short lived. He was absorbed back into the peloton before reaching the top of the climb for the second-last time. Jai Crawford (Genesys) took the points with Lapthorne and KOM leader Ben Hill (RBS Morgans) in second and third respectively.

The rain and difficult descent split the peloton, leaving a leading group of approximately 15 riders in front as the final lap loomed. The second group on the road were not giving up easily and despite the crosswinds, they worked to rejoin the front shortly before the final time up the climb.

The top three GC contenders; Giacoppo, Lapthorne and Van Der Ploeg were all present in the front group just as the sun began to show itself again. It provided little respite for the front group as the pace was increased up the final climb. A select group of five riders gapped the splintering bunch with scattered riders chasing in small groups.

The final selection of five riders contained race leader Giacoppo with Lapthorne unable to dislodge the yellow jersey wearer. Coming into the finish it was Giacoppo’s teammate Campbell Flakemore who took the win ahead of Hill and Giacoppo. Lapthorne and Crawford finished in the same time with Van Der Ploeg coming in 26 seconds down.

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