Youngsters upstage senior rivals on dramatic day at Portarlington

Rising stars Tiffany Cromwell and Michael Matthews upstaged their more experienced rivals to take stage wins on day two of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic in Portarlington.

 

On what is regarded as the toughest stage of the four day event, the Portarlington course was made even tougher this year by a landscape works near the foreshore that required the field to ride two abreast on a footpath for 200m each lap.

 

The notorious downhill left hander onto the finishing straight remained and caused crashes in both the men’s and women’s events. The most serious occurred on the first lap of the women’s race leaving Tasmanian Belinda Goss nursing a broken collarbone and popped shoulder that will put her out for the rest of the Australian summer.

 

Only 15 of the 51 starters in the women’s race were able to beat the crashes and the testing course to make the finish.  It was an even more graphic tale for the men with just 23 of the 100 who faced the starter surviving the journey.

 

Cromwell too strong as Honda claim jersey sweep

 

South Australian Tiffany Cromwell collected her first Jayco Bay Classic stage win in seven years of trying.  The 22-year-old Honda Dream team rider did so in emphatic fashion, almost lapping the field to cruise home ahead of Jayco AIS teammates Lauren Kitchen and Alex Carle.

 

The women’s race began dramatically with a six rider pile up on that nasty left hander that leads into the finishing straight taking out defending champion Rochelle Gilmore (Honda) and Tasmanian Belinda Goss (Vetta).  The pair had finished first and second in the opening stage and Goss was expected to be a danger on the tough Portarlington circuit.

 

Gilmore managed to avoid hitting the asphalt and was able to rejoin the race after taking a lap out, but it was immediately clear that Goss was in pain and would be taking no further part in the stage.  It was later confirmed that the track world championships points race bronze medallist had a broken left collarbone, ending her series and national championships aspirations for 2011.

 

Further spills followed with Honda’s Melissa Hoskins and 2009 series winner Kirsty Broun both crashing in separate incidents, but with both able to continue.

 

The tumbles splintered the field, and Cromwell made the most of the opportunity, taking the first intermediate sprint before she was joined by Carle. The duo was then joined by Kitchen nine laps later as they extended their lead to 25 seconds.

 

Cromwell was anxious that the team mates may out point her in a sprint to the finish so made another successful surge immediately after claiming the second sprint with 15 minutes remaining.  It proved to be the winning move, ultimately coming close to lapping the peloton before careering home a convincing 30 second winner. 

 

Kitchen eventually got away from Carle by 21 seconds in the battle for second and third.

 

“I had the legs today felt really good, we were expecting a break away because of the course. I had the opportunity and just went for it, I got a little bit worried when the two Jayco girls got together but as soon as I had that gap I just went for it,” Cromwell said.

“The Honda dream team is a seriously talented team. We’ve got a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, a world championships gold medallist, Australian team representatives. We’ve got so many different cards we can play, everybody gets an opportunity which makes it a big guessing game for all other teams.”

 

“I knew my biggest danger was having Lauren Kitchen there, I have raced against her in the past and she is such a strong sprinter, so I had to get rid of her,” said Cromwell who likes the Portarlington circuit having previously won the best young rider category in the Tour of Geelong on the testing course.

 

Rochelle Gilmore finished in sixth place to retain the leader’s jersey - by five points from Cromwell.  Honda has now claimed both stage wins and the leads in the overall general classification, sprint and team jerseys in a complete sweep of the available podium prizes.

 

“We’re doing a fantastic job, just exceeding all expectations and it was great to see young Tiffany pull it off under pressure. Because we certainly put the pressure on her before the race, we said there is no getting out of this one, you're the climber,” Gilmore said.

 

“She was our plan A and we didn’t really have a plan B, so it was great that she came through.

 

Gilmore said she was ready for the crash on what is a difficult technical course.

 

“To me that fall was predictable, I know this course very well, I have raced it a lot of times, there are a lot of nervous people on the first lap, coming down that hill on the first lap the speed was way to  fast, so I let the wheel go a bit and left a little bit of a gap but five or six riders in front of me came down, I bounced off onto the grass but I didn't actually come off the bike, just got a little bit of air over the road but got myself back together.

 

“It's really unfortunate that it happens on the first lap, it's only natural everybody is really nervous and goes as fast as they can to get a really good position on a technical circuit.

 

Matthews out sprints the old fox to take the win and series lead

 

Michael Matthews demonstrated at the world championships in Geelong that he is capable of achieving big things when he powered up Mooroobool Street to claim the Under 23 world title.

 

That resulted in a contract with Rabobank and a pathway to the biggest bike races in the world.

 

Today the 20-year-old from Canberra once again displayed his potential, out-duelling the experienced Grand Tour stage winner Simon Gerrans in a finishing sprint.

 

Gerrans (Team Sky) showed his intentions early, taking the first sprint before a nullified attack was reeled in, providing the launching pad for Gerrans and Matthews (Urban) to attack.  It was a brave move as the race had close to 40 minutes remaining. However the pair worked well together to increase their margin to as much as 32 seconds.

 

Olympic track gold medallist Brett Lancaster (Garmin-Cervello) was the only individual rider to attempt to bridge the gap, getting within six seconds and taking third spot in the second sprint behind Matthews and Gerrans.

 

Lancaster’s effort came to nought and in an attempt to protect the series chances of title holder Chris Sutton, Sky, first through Sutton himself and then New Zealand’s Greg Henderson, attempted to chase down the lead pair.  They were quickly joined by E3/Pure Tasmania’s Wes and Bernie Sulzberger who were protecting their team leader Matt Goss, the combined effort reducing the gap to 13 seconds with two laps remaining.

 

However Matthews and Gerrans were too strong and it despite the sprinting prowess of Gerrans, a former winner on the Portarlington circuit, it was Matthews who dashed clear after the final turn to win his first Jayco Bay Classic stage.  Matthews’ teammate Joe Lewis boxed on for third, with Goss seventh and Sutton tenth.

 

The win catapulted Matthews into the series lead, one point ahead of Goss, with Gerrans receiving some consolation for his effort, taking the sprinters green jersey from Graeme Brown who crashed out with two laps remaining.

 

“I just tried to keep the pace up the whole time,” Matthews said.  “This circuit suited me, with the wind and the corners, kicking out of the corners suits me.

 

“I tried to drop Gerro a couple of times but couldn’t quite do it so just saved it for the sprint.  I tried to slow it down so I could have a really hard kick out of the corner and gap Gerro a little bit and it worked.”

 

Gerrans was full of praise for his young rival. “Full credit to Michael, he did the last couple of laps on the front.  We’ll see big things from him in the future.”

 

Goss lost the lead after running out of gas, but remains hopeful that he can regain the yellow fleece by series end in Williamstown on Wednesday.

 

“I tried to go with the break but I gave it a bit too much and it cost me in the finish. I used too much energy in the first half an hour.  I tried to cover too many moves, and it cost me too much energy.

 

“Tomorrow is a hard crit, it’s a hotdog and its very stop start, particularly after two hard days racing.

 

In the support race, Nathan Earle dominated the majority of the race, two seconds clear of yesterday’s stage winner Steele Von Hoff who retained the overall series lead.

 

Stage three tomorrow is twilight hot-dog circuit along Ritchie Boulevard on the Geelong waterfront.

 

 

Portarlington (1.7km per lap)

 

ELITE MEN

Stage Two Results

1.             Michael Matthews (Urban)                                                                                12

2.             Simon Gerrans (Team Sky)                                                                                 10

3.             Joe Lewis (Urban)                                                                                                  8

4.             Bernie Sulzberger (E3/Pure Tasmania)                                                              7

5.             Greg Henderson (Team Sky)                                                                               6

6.             Wes Sulzberger (E3/Pure Tasmania)                                                                  5

7.             Matthew Goss (E3/Pure Tasmania)                                                                     4

8.             Leigh Howard (Jayco VIS)                                                                                      3

9.             Allan Davis (Bikebug.com)                                                                                    2

10.          Chris Sutton (Team Sky)                                                                                        1

 

Jayco General Classification after Stage Two

1.             Michael Matthews (Urban)                                                                                17

2.             Matthew Goss (E3/Pure Tasmania)                                                                   16

3.             Chris Sutton (Team Sky)                                                                                      11

4.             Simon Gerrans (Team Sky)                                                                                 10

5.             Allan Davis (Bikebug.com)                                                                                  10

6.             Leigh Howard (Jayco VIS)                                                                                      9

7.             Joe Lewis (Urban)                                                                                                  8

8.             Bernie Sulzberger (E3/Pure Tasmania)                                                              7

9.             Graeme Brown (Urban)                                                                                        7

10.          Greg Henderson (Team Sky)                                                                                6

 

Blood Hyundai Sprint Ace – After Stage Two

1.             Simon Gerrans (Team Sky)                                                                                   8

2.             Graeme Brown (Urban)                                                                                        8

3.             Michael Matthews (Urban)                                                                                  5

 

 Teams Classification – After Stage Two

1.             Urban                                                                                                                     32

2.             E3/Pure Tasmania                                                                                                28

3.             Team Sky                                                                                                               27

4.             Bikebug.com                                                                                                         10

 

 

ELITE WOMEN

Stage Two Results

1.             Tiffany Cromwell (Honda)                                                                                   12

2.             Lauren Kitchen (Jayco AIS)                                                                                 10

3.             Alex Carle (Jayco AIS)                                                                                          8

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Read more | Comments (0) | Updated on January 3, 2011, 3:28pm