Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL) flew throughout the road in first place after an action-packed edition of the men’s Surf Coast Classic the place each the climbs, crosswinds and a dedication to take the sting out of the dash of the dominant ending power of Sam Welsford (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) set the race alight.
Andresen overcame the Australian, who was feeling the impacts of the robust 157km day on the 1.1 occasion from Lorne to Torquay that acts as an entree to the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road race. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) was third which implies, that after some close to misses in South Australia, the 22-year-old has already managed to drag off his first podium place after spending lower than a month within the WorldTour.
It too was an early season achievement for Andresen, who had the purpose of taking his first one-day win this 12 months and pulled it off earlier than January was over when he claimed the difficult dash, which has a left-hand flip into the ultimate kilometre.
“I used to be across the nook in Sam’s wheel in, like fifth place, so I used to be very glad,” mentioned Andresen in Torquay as he seemed again at what was going by means of his thoughts throughout that profitable effort. “But then, yeah, I bought swarmed in order that second you simply have to remain calm – you are not going to get something out of speeding your self.”
“A bit fortunate for me, Teutenberg, he opened up an early dash so I adopted his wheel after which whenever you see a end line, you do not take into consideration anything than simply getting there first.”
There have been a lot of moments, nevertheless, earlier than the ultimate run-in on the aggressive day of racing when there was doubt about whether or not it’d even come all the way down to a ultimate bunch cost all through, with the ultimate transfer of reeled-in being a break of Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep), Kelland O’Brien (Jayco-AlUla) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) that was caught within the ultimate kilometres.
How it unfolded
It was the second edition of the Surf Coast Classic for the boys, with the 157km race setting off from Lorne in delicate situations after a foreshore sign-on, with a backdrop of surfers out within the waves.
The 1.1 race lined a lot the identical terrain as Wednesday’s girls’s occasion, solely differing in the truth that so as to add in one other 40km it looped out to Forrest – a city with a labyrinth of mountain bike trails hidden among the many bushes. There was no change to the brutal begin, nevertheless, with riders out on the 10km climb earlier than the race bought underway in order that they have been able to react to what was to come back.
There have been, of course, assaults as quickly because the flag dropped on the ascent, with solo efforts inspiring teams after which turning into splits. There have been additionally a lot of riders slipping off the again, hoping that they might be capable to bridge once more as soon as it eased. Some may however others among the many lengthy tail of riders chasing as soon as the race went by means of Dean’s Marsh, couldn’t,
As the race set off by means of Barwon Downs and on to Forrest the assaults stored flying, in addition to the splits but it surely was not till it had ticked all the way down to round 100km left within the race {that a} extended group bought away out entrance. First, it was round 15 after which the peloton break up once more as one other group peeled off in pursuit, catching the preliminary bunch and swelling the quantity to round 40. The group was effectively populated by riders from Picnic PostNL, EF Education–Easypost, LidL-Trek and Soudal-Quickstep, with Mauro Schmid amongst them for Jayco-AlUla.
Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe was pushing the chase behind however the hole simply stored stretching, creeping as much as round 35 seconds by the point they went by means of the second feed zone with 75km left to go and it then stretched out to over a minute with round 60km to go. After that, the reeling-in began and by the point the race had round 40km to go the hole was all the way down to 30 seconds, with Red-Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe on the chase as soon as once more.
At 35km to go the catch was made, and that of course opened the door once more with the bunch being stretched, splits and a number of assaults occurring after which the crosswinds hit. The stress was on and the sector was break up into a number of teams at 28km to go, whereas 9 riders have been out the entrance.
There was some coming collectively behind of the teams behind however Ineos Grenadiers was within the field seat out entrance with 4 within the main group and hole of about 20 seconds with round 20km to go. The group contained Lucas Hamilton, Michael Kwiatkowski, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas for Ineos Grenadiers and in addition Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep), Sven Erik Bystrøm (Groupama-FDJ), Kelland O’Brien (Jayco-AlUla), Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis).
It then became a gaggle of three, Pedersen, O’Brien and Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) however they have been caught within the ultimate kilometres leaving the action-paced race to be determined with a difficult dash, particularly given many lead-out groups had been drained by such a tough day of racing.
When a spent Welsford launched from his, leaping onto the fitting wheel proved to be Andresen’s salvation.
Results
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