Cycling News

01 January 2008

The 2008 Australian Championship has been run and won by Matt Lloyd, in a thrilling race that saw a breakaway group of 9 assume a strong lead of over 6 minutes.

The day started out cool and windy with the thermometer reading only 12 degrees on the circuit 1 hour prior to the race start. Light rain soon followed but by the time the race was underway, the rain had stopped and gradually over the next 4 hours the clouds slowly cleared.

The first attack of the day saw a group of 5 ride off the front followed by another group of 4 who joined the 5 on the decent after Mt Buninyong. The peloton seemed relaxed to let the group of 9 go, however after 4 short laps the leaders had created a strong 6’11 lead over the main field. This lead put some pressure on Simon and his Credit Agricole team mates in Jeremy Hunt and Mark Renshaw. Hunt, while trying to reel in the time gap, lead the peloton for 2 laps while Simon and Renshaw found good position up the front of the group. The lead riders began to get dropped one by one and by lap 13 the chasing peloton had disintegrated to no more than 20 riders. Matt Lloyd, in an attack that went unnoticed, strongly rode himself into the Green and Gold and claimed victory by 49 seconds from a strong finishing pair of Adam Hansen and Rory Sutherland.

Simon had a mixed day hoping that 2008 would be his year to claim the Aussie title however it was not meant to be. He ended up 5th after attacking with Matt Wilson on the last lap while trying to bridge the gap to Hansen and Sutherland.

Results

1. Matt Lloyd (Silence-Lotto)
2. Adam Hansen (Team High Road)
3. Rory Sutherland (Health-Net)
4. Ritchie Porte (TAS)
5. Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole)

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