McCarthy grabs race lead in Germany

McCarthy, 18, overtook Germany's Theo Reinhardt on the line to win in a time of 4:11:46 with Michael Koch (GER) close behind in third place. The stage covered a 170 kilometre rolling course out and back from the town of Erfurt finishing with three laps of a seven kilometre circuit.

"There were a few attacks out on the road with riders chasing intermediate and mountain points but the race regrouped before the finishing circuit," said Jayco-AIS Team Director, James Victor. "Past the finish line each time there was a solid 700 metre uphill pitch at around 13 to 15 percent and that split up the peloton.

"Jay and Pat (Lane) both rode into a lead group of around a dozen riders and Pat rode really well over the final kilometre to control the speed in a bid to set Jay up for the finish."

Lane, having done his job for McCarthy, dropped back to finish eleventh, seven seconds behind his winning team mate. The main bunch rode home 21 seconds down.

The result puts McCarthy into the yellow jersey of overall leader. He also tops the points and best young rider classifications.

It's the first victory in Europe for the 2010 Australian junior road race champion who stepped into the U23 ranks this year but struggled early in the season with a niggling knee injury.

Tomorrow's stage is a 22 kilometre team time trial in Streufdorf and Jayco AIS, who won this stage last year, is keen to repeat that result in 2011.

The Jayco-AIS riders contesting the International Thüringen Tour in Germany are: Nick Aitken, Alex Carver, Michael Hepburn, Jay McCarthy andPat Lane

The Jayco-AIS women's development team has also enjoyed success this month with West Australian Melissa Hoskins sprinting home to win theBegijnendijk kermesse (circuit race) in Belgium.

About Team Jayco-AIS

Jayco Corporation and the Australian Institute of Sport are backing Australia's next generation of cycling talent across track and road for both men and women under the Team Jayco AIS banner. In 2011, on the road with the men, Team Jayco AIS is registered as a UCI Continental Team in the Oceania Region whilst the women's team will compete in the Australian National Road Series in the Jayco AIS strip. In the fixed wheel arena Jayco AIS will blaze a trail on the velodrome in the UCI World Cup Classics and UCI calendar events. Team Jayco AIS continues the tradition of excellence of Cycling Australia's High Performance Program. For more information and news from the team visit