Cyclingnews TV   News  Tech   Features   Road   MTB   BMX   Cyclo-cross   Track    Photos    Fitness    Letters   Search   Forum  
Home

Recently on Cyclingnews.com


Giro finale
Photo ©: Bettini

 UCI codes explained

Australian Cycling Grand Prix - NE

Ballarat, Australia, August 17-19, 2007

Main Page    Results   Overall standings    Previous Stage   Next Stage

Stage 2 - August 18: Criterium, 33km

Overdue win for 'Big Mac'

By Rod Morris in Ballarat

Racing in the best form of his life, NSW cyclist Peter McDonald claimed the second annual Australian Cycling Grand Prix Criterium in Ballarat today, enhancing his claims to win this year's Timbercorp Cup National Series.

McDonald (28) was by far the most aggressive and impressive rider in the 33 km criterium, which was held in typical Victorian weather conditions... four seasons in a short space of time.

"I certainly can't complain about the form I'm in and it's really satisfying to finally get a win," McDonald said.

McDonald also won the sprint championship, which was held within the criterium and in the final sprint to the line had 5-seconds to spare from the chasing peloton, which was led home by Gary Meuller (Vic) and Queensland's Jonathon Cantwell, who has just returned from racing in America.

Equally impressive as McDonald, was Victorian Nicole Whitburn, who won the women's criterium, also over 33 km, whilst 39-year-old Hawthorn veteran Peter Dennis won the non-elite club race prelude.

McDonald has been the form rider of the newly named Timbercorp Cup series, which started with the Tour of Gippsland earlier this month, where McDonald finished six times in the top 15 finishes from eight stages before eventually finishing in 10th place on general classification, as well as winning the most aggressive rider award in Gippsland and it was this trait that shone out in the Ballarat ACGP Criterium.

"I like to attack and if the others want to come with me, I'll see what happens when we get towards the finish."

His status as one of Australia 's best talents is growing as each race in the Timbercorp Cup series is held and on this weekend's opening day, he finished in third place in the individual time trial behind Hayden Josefski and Mitchell Docker.

Prior to his criterium win, McDonald's other major victories included the Tour of New Caledonia, Grafton to Inverell, and the Scottsdale Criterium stage race in the 2005 Tour of Tasmania.

McDonald won three of the 11 intermediate sprints and finished second in another to total 11 points, finishing well ahead of Darcy Rosenlund (6 points) and a trio of third placegetters on 5, including Brad Edmunds, Angus Morton and Stuart Shaw.

"I've been on the podium a few times this series, but only on the bottom rungs, so it's nice to be up here first," McDonald said.

"Once it started to drizzle it was going to be harder to get around the corners if you are back in the bunch, so I decided to get up towards the front and try and stay there,"

"It surprised me a little bit that I wasn't chased down a little more towards the end of the race."

The Timbercorp Cup series is now 10 races of 35 old and McDonald has jumped into third spot on 66 points, five behind leader Zak Dempster, who is currently overseas and three behind Grant Irwin, who is yet to register a top 10 finish in the ACGP.

McDonald also leads the ACGP on 20 points with the road race to come, but his lead is just two points from Haydn Josefski and defending champion, Mitchell Docker.

Australian representative Jenny MacPherson set the scene early in the women's criterium winning nine consecutive intermediate sprints before the peloton reeled her in.

Macpherson eventually finished seventh but she was clearly the most aggressive rider in the field and at one stage she had broken clear by 30 seconds.

In the end Nicole Whitburn, a 28-year-old engineer for the Melbourne based firm of her brother, greeted the judge in fine style.

"I had high hopes of winning, but was never overly confident," she said.

"I raced in this series last year but was coming back from injury and had an ordinary race."

A former triathlete, Whitburn crossed over to road cycling two years ago after she confessed "I was crap at swimming."

"The atmosphere for this race was tremendous with everyone cheering and the race commentary giving us the split times was a real bonus, it wouldn't mattered if I didn't win because I was really enjoying myself out there," she said.

Whitburn broke a shoulder in the Geelong Women's Tour two years ago, but has now fully recovered and enjoying her racing. "I've actually had a very busy year of racing and I'm probably due for a break, which I"ll probably take after Sunday's road race," she said.

Defending criterium champion Jessica Berry had to be content with second place, leading the bunch home 15 seconds adrift of Whitburn, while promising Queenslander Carly Hibberd clinched third place.

A new event on the ACGP calendar was the non-elite criterium for club riders with Hawthorn based land surveyor Peter Dennis spread-eagling the field to win by a whopping 2 minutes from Anthony Fitzpatrick (Alice Springs) and a further 1.08 minutes to St Kilda's Jarrod Rouhan.

Dennis lapped every rider in the field in a sensational solo performance.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com

Images by Fiona Carnibella/http://pix1.awardspace.com

Results

Elite men

1 Peter Mcdonald     47.19 (41.85 km/h)
2 Gary Mueller        0.05
3 Jonathan Cantwell       
4 Mitchell Docker         
5 Hayden Josefski         
6 Daniel Braunsteins      
7 Patrick Shaw            
8 Joe Mcdonnell           
9 Doug Repacholi          
10 Ben Mather             
11 Jason Hegert           
12 Tom Middleton          
13 Chris Steffanoni       
14 Darcy Rosenlund        
15 Matthew Sherwin        
16 Brad Edmunds           
17 Peter Smith            
18 Miles Watson           
19 Grant Irwin            
20 Brendan Schultz        
21 Danny Kah              
22 Matt King              
23 Damien Turner          
24 Cameron Carlyle        
25 Christopher Tymms      
26 Chris Jory         0.11
27 Scott Kilmartin        
28 Daniel Furmston        
29 Robert Lyte            
30 Nicholas Sanderson     
31 Matt Sillars           
32 Benjamin King          
33 Angus Morton       0.15
34 Adam Murchie       0.16
35 Gavin Nicholls         
36 Darren Lapthorne       
37 Vaughan Bowman         
38 Mark Jamieson          
39 Timothy Decker         
40 Nathan Wise            
41 Mark Hooper            
42 Shaun Higgerson    0.27
43 Will Wetenhall     0.28
44 Peter Milostic     0.34
45 Samuel Rix         1.01
46 Shaun Mccarthy     1.23
47 Alexander Machin       
DNF David Marriott        
DNF Peter Aquilina        
DNF Craig Robertson       
DNF Casey Munro           
DNF Mark O'brien          
DNF Grant Webster         
DNF David Pell            
DNF Andrew Ward           
DNF Miles Olman           
DNF Simon Shaw            
DNF Robert Williams       
DNF Sean Finning          
DNF Jason Halls           
DNF Stuart Shaw           
DNF Joshua Chugg          
DNF Jay Bourke            
DNF Mark Isaacs           
DNF Gilbert Gutowski      
DNF Mark Gainsmith        
DNF Jeremy Hills          
DNF Brendon Sharratt      
DNF Josh Hawkes           
DNF Glen Peterson         
DNF Simon Pearson         
DNF Josh Page             
DNF Nicholas Mitchell     
DNF Nicholas Walker       
DNS Craig Mccartney       
DNS Luke Mackenzie        
DNS Jack Hudson           
DNS Brendan Washington    
DNS Jarrod Harman         
DNS William Ford          
DNS Marcus Wettenhall     
DNS Luke Pledger          
DNS Chris Pryor           
DNS Kyle Marwood          
DNS Daniel Conway         
DNS Bradley Clark         
DNS Robert Regester       
DNS Matthew Davis         
DNS Tony Mann             
 
Elite Women

1 Nicole Whitburn    56.32 (35.02km/h)
2 Jessica Berry       0.15
3 Carly Hibberd           
4 Grace Sulzberger        
5 Liz Young               
6 Vicki Whitelaw          
7 Jenny Macpherson    0.18
8 Rowena Fry              
9 Kate Warren         0.21
10 Jemma O'brien          
DNF Radele Berriman       
DNF Amber Jenkins         
DNF Clare Vlahopoulos     
DNF Peta Stewart          
DNF Katherine Baker       
DNF Vanessa Courtot       
DNS Kathryn Watt          
DNS Bridie O'donnell      
DNS Dana Faletic          
DNS Rebecca Domange       
DNS Lorraine Meinke       
DNS Simone Spykers        
DNS Kerryn Charman