THE Tour of the Great South Coast threw up more carnage last week, with Thursday morning’s criterium stage at Naracoorte taking its toll.
While the peloton rolled around the town circuit in tight formation, with the hope to close down the tour leader Sam Welsford, a tough exit to one of the corners saw several riders again come to grief.
Welsford’s Pro Racing Sunshine Coast team were right in the firing line, with the accident unfolding just in front of the Australian world record team pursuit riders.
However, they were able to avoid the carnage and continue on to the finish line, with Cameron Scott ultimately claiming the win from Welsford and rising star leader, Drapac’s Jensen Plowright, who has dominated the Under 21 riders in the field throughout the tour.
“This is a great thrill to win my first national road race,” Scott said.
“I’ve been on the podium a few times, but to finally get the win is exciting.
“I got around the crash and was second wheel leading to the finish.
“I hit Sam late and just got over him which is a great thrill.”
Fellow Pro Racing rider Kelland O’Brien finished in fourth place, but did enough through the 30 laps to claim the sprint jersey on a count-back from Welsford.
The most aggressive rider again went to Drapac’s Patrick Burt for the second stage running, while Scott wrestled the criterium jersey from team mate Welsford, also on a count-back.
While Welsford retained his leader’s jersey, he said he was pleased to see Scott claim the stage win after working hard for the team throughout the tour.
“It was a really tough race today and Cameron was on,” he said.
“He is one of the fastest sprinters in Australia so I am happy to come second to him any day of the week.”
The Pro Racing team was lucky to escape the carnage again yesterday, after Wednesday’s crash took out many riders.
It appeared the off-camber section of one corner at Naracoorte may have contributed to the incident, with the pace of the race leaving little room for error.
“It happened just in front of us on the inside of the corner, so we were a bit affected,” Welsford said.
“We didn’t get caught up in it too much and were lucky enough to go 1, 2, 4.”
After stage four, teammates Welsford (tour leader), O’Brien (sprint and King of the Mountain) and Scott (criterium) held four of the most coveted jerseys.
From there teams prepared for the tour’s first ever team time trial in the afternoon where the world champion riders of the Pro Racing team were expected to dominate.
However, that was not how the race panned out.
The InForm team, which included the classy, young Jarrad Drizners and German Raphael Freienstein claimed the honours in a surprise result by five seconds over Pro Racing.
The tour continues across into Victoria today, with stage six a tough Casterton to Heywood road race over 94.7km.
Stage seven sees the Bridgewater road race over 121.4km, before the tour winds up on Sunday with a 48km criterium around a Portland waterfront circuit.
A full wrap up of the tour will be published next week in The Border Watch.
