Morgan takes Blue Lake road race

Alex Morgan (Jayco/Apollo VIS) has won the second stage of the Tour of the Great South Coast having featured in an initial 12-man breakaway that formed before the half-way point of the 65km road race between Mt Gambier and Blue Lake.

Morgan escaped with Sam Horgan (Budget Forklifts) from 10 other riders and stayed away to the end, eventually finishing with a 1:09 advantage over third-place-getter Alex Edmondson (Euride) who led home a four-man chase group. The result was a great recovery for Edmondson who had crashed heavily during the morning stage. Morgan timed his effort to perfection to ensure he took the stage win.

"It’s a long straight, it was uphill and there was a headwind," he said. "I thought I should wait until the barricades to make a move, and it worked."

Overall leader following the opening stage, Jack Beckinsale (Huon-Genesys) finished over three minutes in arrears of Morgan. With time bonuses gained over the stage's intermediate sprints, Horgan steps into the yellow leader's jersey with a 19 second advantage over Morgan with Budget no doubt looking to repeat their overall victory at the last-up Tour of Gippsland. Edmondson, another member of Australia's world champion pursuit, is 1:10 behind Horgan.

"I’m absolutely thrilled," Horgan said. "Of course it would’ve been nice to take the stage win this afternoon but I was giving
it everything to get as much time as I could."

The pace was high from the outset with the field strung out heading up to the first climb of the day after just 3.6km. New Huon-Genesys recruit Luke Parker was first over the top.

Cross-winds buffeted the peloton on the back straight with the loop around Blue Lake causing havoc as riders began to struggle at the back and it wasn't long before the first breakaway of the day established itself with escape groups set to be the catalyst for an overall winner this round of the National Road Series.

A dangerous move containing a dozen riders, including Genesys pair Pat Shaw and Jack Haig, quickly gained 30 seconds on the bunch before more riders tried to bridge the gap. Morgan and Sam Horgan (Budget Forklifts) made a dash off the front of the break, leaving the peloton trailing by a minute at the half-way mark of the stage while the peloton remained a good 30 seconds off the lead pair.

It was an escape that would be good enough to secure the stage win with Morgan and Horgan sharing the spoils of the most aggressive prize.

The tour continues Thursday with another double stage day, beginning with a criterium in Portland before a 93km road race from Heywood to Casterton.

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