Results: Australian Cycling Grand Prix, Day 2, Vic (TC)

Full results, report & photos.

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.

Photos

Photo ©: Shane Goss	www.licoricegallery.com	Click images to enlarge

Results

Elite men

1 Peter McDonald
2 Gary Mueller
3 Jonathon Cantwell
4 Mitchell Docker
5 Hayden Josefski
6 Daniel Branusteins
7 Patrick Shaw
8 Joe McDonell
9 Doug Repacholi
10 Ben Mather

Elite Women

1 Nicole Whitburn
2 Jessica Berry
3 Carly Hibberd
4 Grace Sulzberger
5 Liz Young
6 Vicki Whitelaw
7 Jenny Macpherson
8 Rowena Fry
9 Kate Warren
10 Jemma O’Brien

Non Elite

1 Peter Dennis
2 Anthony Ftizpatrick
3 Jarrod Rouhan
4 Kevin SImmons
5 David Short
6 Tony Mirabella
7 Ashley Warton
8 Cameron Shaw
9 Mark Patterson
10 Xavier Gstrein