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

Pell & Mcdonald Level Pegging After Stage 4

By Rod Morris - 28th August 2007 - Back to News

Victorian 27-year-old David Pell took over as the new leader of the Fishers IGA Tour of the Murray River yesterday, but not before he sent judges and timekeepers scurrying for the records.

Pell was sixth home in the Kerang to Cohuna fourth stage and along the way picked up enough intermediate time bonuses to draw level with previous leader Peter McDonald.

Although technically McDonald probably should still be the leader – courtesy of his Stage 2 win at Barham – officials recognized Pell after his consistent performances.

The pair are locked on a total race time of 5 hours 53.55 minutes after four stages and 246 km of hard racing.

Whilst the second day of the 13 stage Tour of the Murray River gave Pell plenty of satisfaction, double glory belonged to Queenslander’ Grant Irwin.

Irwin won the morning criterium in Kerang and then repeated the performance in the 74.7 km road stage in the afternoon.

Irwin has now pushed his way back up into third place and cut his losses to 7-seconds, while Patrick Shaw is well placed at 21 seconds.

The Timbercorp Cup series – formerly known as the Tattersall’s Cup – has developed a short history of riders winning dual stages in the same day.

Tasmanian Wes Sulzberger won a double stage in last year’s Ouyen day in the Tour of the Murray River and Victorian Cody Stevenson did likewise in the 2006 Tour of Gippsland.

Canberra’s Robbie McLachlan also scored double success in the 2005 Tour of Gippsland.

Ten riders are under a minute behind Pell and McDonald and realistically are the only possible winners with the 13^th placed Miles Watson more than 9 minutes adrift.

STAGE 3

Queensland based Grant Irwin won his third race in Caribou promoted history, claiming the morning’s 33 km criterium in Kerang.

Irwin won the Merbein to Wentworth stage of the 2005 Tour of the Murray River and in this year’s Timbercorp Cup series, closed off the Tour of Gippsland with victory in the Bairnsdale Criterium.

The tall 22-year-old unleashed a powerful closing sprint to edge out Sydneysider Gary Meuller and tour veteran Robbie McLachlan from Canberra.

It was an all-up bunch sprint after riders had completed the 33 km in just 46.33 minutes, equating to an average speed of 42.53 kph!

"The pace was definitely on, right from the start," Irwin said.

"Not everything went to plan, but in the end we got the right result."

We – in Irwin terms – means the newly formed Ord Minnett team, which is very quickly establishing some very good results on the domestic Australian cycling scene.

After running second to Brett Aitken in the opening stage criterium in Echuca, Irwin was awarded the leader’s jersey, but then slipped to fourth place, some 29 seconds behind the new leader Peter McDonald in the Moama to Barham road stage.

Another strong result in a lightning-quick criterium, kept Irwin well and truly in reach of the lead, dragging back 8 seconds on McDonald.

"There is still a long way to go in this bike race, so getting into yellow this early is not exactly our team’s goal," Irwin said.

McDonald expressed similar feelings, but was quick to add "Its nice to be the leader, but with it comes plenty of extra attention from the rest of the field."

"You can’t make a move without one team or another ready to attack you and then throw in another attack."

"You have to be on your guard throughout every moment of the race, otherwise you could lose so much time that your tour would be almost over."

The strong cross winds that riders endured on Sunday took its effect on a large portion of the field and realistically there are only a dozen riders left with a genuine chance of overall victory.

Twelfth placed Jack Bobridge (South Australia) is 48 seconds down on McDonald, but then it’s a huge jump to the 13^th placed Miles Watson (NZ), who is more than 9 minutes in arrears.

News from Sunday’s crash that New Zealander’ Josh Page had suffered severe facial injuries was also confirmed in the early part of Day 2.

STAGE 4

Like the previous day, the afternoon’s road race was held under a blazing hot sun and strong cross and tail winds.

A 74.7 km journey from Kerang to Cohuna took its toll on many riders as the pace in the morning’s criterium had been at a cracker pace.

Within the first 10 km the peloton broke up into five distinct groups, but the majority of the challengers for General Classification honours were all safely tucked away in the lead bunch.

As riders headed towards Murrabit and Koondrook the gaps continued to grow as several attacks and counter attacks were aimed at Tour leader Peter McDonald.

Four intermediate sprints along the way were shared between Miles Watson (NZ), Grant Irwin (Qld) and David Pell (Vic).

Pell, who was also second in two intermediate sprints was on his way to bigger glory.

Once the lead group crossed the 10 km to go sign, McDonald decided to make his move, as he did so successfully on day one.

But this time, the talented group of chasers proved too good for him, reeling him in relatively quickly.

Into the Cohuna township and McLachlan punched his way to the lead and in the final 500 m sprint to the line looked every inch the winner.

But the powerful sprinting style of Irwin ruined McLachlan’s day out.

It was a tremendous finish to the stage with Irwin winning by the barest possible margin.

Third home – for the second time this week – was Victorian Nicholas Sanderson, followed by Robbie Cater (NSW) and in-form Victorian teenager Leigh Howard.

Pell was sixth home, thus earning a further one second bonus towards his overall time.

Coupled with his intermediate sprint bonuses, Pell found himself awarded the leader’s yellow jersey, on a countback from McDonald.

Brief results –

STAGE 3 – KERANG CRITERIUM, 33 KM

1. Grant Irwin (Qld), 46.33 minutes

2. Gary Meuller (NSW), same time

3. Robert McLachlan (ACT), same time

4. Leigh Howard (Vic), same time

5. Doug Repacholi (WA), same time

6. Robbie Cater (NSW), same time

7. Nick Sanderson (Vic), same time

8. Brett Aitken (SA), same time

9. John Ebeling (NSW), same time

10. Benjamin King (WA), same time

STAGE 4 – KERANG to COHUNA. 74. km

1. Grant Irwin (Qld), 1 hour, 38.03 minutes

2. Robert McLachlan (ACT), same time

3. Nicholas Sanderson (Vic), same time

4. Robbie Cater (NSW), same time

5. Leigh Howard (Vic), same time

6. David Pell (Vic), same time

7. Brad Edmunds (NSW), same time

8. Patrick Shaw (Vic), same time

9. Miles Watson (NZ), same time

10. Benjamin King (WA), same time

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (after Stage 4)

1. Peter McDonald (NSW), 5 hours 53.55 minutes

2. David Pell (Vic), same time

3. Grant Irwin (Qld), +7 seconds

4. Patrick Shaw (Vic), +21 seconds

5. Robert McLachlan (ACT), 24 seconds

6. Leigh Howard (Vic), +32 seconds

7. John Ebeling (NSW), +44 seconds

8. Benjamin King (WA), +45 seconds

9. Tom Middleton (SA), same time

10. Jack Bobridge (SA), same time

Road Safe Mildura Sprint Championship: Miles Watson (NSW)

WHK Thomsons Criterium Championship: Grant Irwin (Qld)

MADEC Most Aggressive Rider Award: Peter McDonald (NSW)

To come –

Stage 5 – Euston Criterium, 52 km, Tuesday, August 28

Stage 6 – Merbein Criterium, 33 km, Wednesday, August 29

Stage 7 – Merbein to Wentworth, 80.4 km, Wednesday, August 29

Stage 8 – Mildura Kermesse, 66 km, Thursday, August 30

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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