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Fishers IGA Tour Of The Miurray River (Round 3 Of The 2007 Timbercorp National Cycling Series)

Finning’S Flashing Pedals - Stage 8

By Rod Morris - 3rd September 2007 - Back to News

The stage win may have eluded him but Queensland’s Cameron Hughes was the big mover in yesterday’s eighth stage of the Fishers IGA Tour of the Murray River.

Hughes, a winner of the 1999 Tour of Sunraysia – which is a forerunner of the Tour of the Murray River – is only on his second trip to the Riverland district and obviously has a liking for the area.

Hughes was third in the Mildura Kermesse stage over 66 km, finishing behind winner Sean Finning (Victoria) and former New Zealand rider Miles Watson, who is now based in Melbourne and riding for the Specialized team.

Hughes jumped from more than a minute behind in 10th place to fifth overall and cut his deficit to 37 seconds to leader Peter McDonald with five stages still to be raced.

Finning (22) won a gold medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in the Points Score race and is now establishing a solid reputation in Caribou promoted events.

The Tour of the Murray River is the third leg of four of the Timbercorp Cup National Cycling Series, which started with the Tour of Gippsland, included the Australian Cycling Grand Prix at Ballarat and will conclude in October with the Tour of Tasmania.

Finning has previously won the Mallacoota Criterium in the 2006 Tour of Gippsland, the Latrobe Criterium in the 2006 Tour of Tasmania and this year’s Paynesville Criterium in the Tour of Gippsland, so it was no surprise to see him come to the fore in Mildura.

While Hughes was the day’s big advancer, leader Peter McDonald actually extended his lead and crept closer to claiming his first ever multi-stage tour victory.

McDonald started the day holding a 6-second lead over David Pell and Grant Irwin……..66 km later, that margin had been stretched to 27 seconds over Pell and 29 seconds from Irwin.

STAGE 8

The Mildura Kermesse is now a regular event on the Tour of the Murray River but on all previous schedules has been the grand finale, not a mid-tour stage.

Previous winners of the Mildura event have included Ashley Hutchinson (2000), David McKenzie (2001, 2004 & 2005), Simon Walker (2002), Peter Milostic (2003) and Michael Ford (2006).

A field of 70 riders from the original entry of 86 took to the start line under a blazing hot sun, which promised no respite.

The peloton just went through the motions for the first couple of laps before a small group of seven riders were able to break clear.

The escapee group included Peter Dawson (WA), Peter McDonald (NSW), Steven Robb (Vic), Brendan Schultz (Vic), Cameron Hughes (Qld) and Ben Mather (Tas).

That elite field stayed away for almost 40 km before the peloton were able to reel them back in.

By then though, McDonald had done a lot of work towards possible tour victory.

He won eight consecutive intermediate sprints and with his main protagonists – Pell, Irwin and Shaw – all missing the front-end action, the bonuses could prove to be invaluable when the tour finishes in Waikerie (South Australia) on Sunday.

As the riders were preparing for one of the last intermediate sprints – at 5 laps to go – a clash of wheels brought five riders crashing to the bitumen.

Matt King (NT), Malcolm Rudolph (Qld), Will Dickeson (SA), Grant Webster (NSW) and Jamie Crass (Vic) were the ones that came to grief, but none were injured badly enough that they could not finish.

Just prior to this the breakaway group had been caught and passed by a small group of three riders, Sean Finning, Miles Watson and Cameron Hughes and this trio were able to hold on till the end, finishing in that order.

Finning, riding for the strong southaustralia.com team had too much in reserve for Watson, whilst Hughes was also spent from his earlier heroics.

"Its nice to get another win," Finning said.

"The team is a bit crabby because we haven’t got anyone in GC contention, so we are all now concentrating on stage placings and see what else we can get for the week."

After some near misses earlier in the tour, it was southaustralia.com’s second consecutive win following on from Mark Jamieson’s victory in the Merbein to Wentworth stage on Wednesday afternoon.

The tour continues on Friday with a dual stage schedule at Ouyen, coinciding with the famous Vanilla Slice Triumph festival and then at the weekend, the entourage moves into South Australia for races at Loxton and Waikerie.

Brief results –

STAGE 8 – MILDURA KERMESSE, 66 KM

1. Sean Finning (Vic), 1 hour 28.35 minutes

2. Miles Watson (Vic/NZ), same time

3. Cameron Hughes (Qld), same time

4. David Pell (Vic), +26 seconds

5. Peter McDonald (NSW), same time

6. Grant Irwin (Qld), same time

7. Robert Cater (NSW), same time

8. Jack Bobridge (SA), same time

9. Leigh Howard (Vic), same time

10. Patrick Shaw (Vic), same time

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (after Stage 8)

1. Peter McDonald (NSW), 11 hours 2.51 minutes

2. David Pell (Vic), +27 seconds

3. Grant Irwin (Qld), +29 seconds

4. Patrick Shaw (Vic), +32 seconds

5. Cameron Hughes (Qld), +37 seconds

6. Benjamin King (WA), +52 seconds

7. Leigh Howard (Vic), +59 seconds

8. Jack Bobridge (SA), +1.18 minutes

9. Tom Middleton (SA), same time

10. John Ebeling (NSW), +1.19 minutes

Road Safe Mildura Sprint Championship: Miles Watson (NSW)

WHK Thomsons Criterium Championship: Grant Irwin (Qld)

MADEC Most Aggressive Rider Award: Cameron Hughes (Qld)

To come –

Stage 9 – Ouyen Criterium, 36 km, Friday, August 31

Stage 10 – Ouyen – Patchewollock – Ouyen, 86.5 km, Friday, August 31

Stage 11 – Loxton Criterium, 42 km, Saturday, September 1

Stage 12 – Loxton Kermesse, 70 km, Saturday, September 1

Stage 13 – Waikerie Kermesse, 44 km, Sunday, September 2

Timbercorp Cup series (events remaining) -

Fishers IGA Tour of the Murray River – August 26 to September 2

Tour of Tasmania – October 2-7

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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