Peloton Cafe || 2015 Tour of the Great South Coast Stage 7 – Patrick Bevin (image copyright Con Chronis)
Avanti Racing Team’s Patrick Bevin (New Zealand) took a stranglehold on the 2015 Tour of the Great South Coast after a decisive victory in the 104km stage into Peterborough this afternoon.
The Koroit-Peterborough stage was raced at a frenetic pace along the Great Ocean Road, with riders clocking 70kms an hour at times. Bevin’s winning time was 2 hours 14 minutes 22 seconds.
Bevin, who currently leads the Subaru National Road Series rankings, will go into tomorrow’s 50km final stage criterium at Port Fairy with a 19 second buffer between him and the German duo of Raphael Freienstein and Michael Schweizer who is three seconds further back.
“It was great to take out the win on stage seven today, capitalising on some great team work from the Avanti Racing Team,” said Bevin. “We had to absorb a lot of pressure throughout the stage, so to come away with our second stage win as well as an increased lead on GC [general classification] makes it a very successful day overall.”
Schweizer, who leads the Tour’s Sprint Championship, admits it will be difficult to catch Bevin, but hasn’t given up hope heading into the final stage.
“I will be trying hard to make up time with sprint bonuses at Port Fairy, but I think Patrick is too far ahead of me now,” Schweizer said.
Earlier today, Team Budget Forklifts’ Scott Sunderland (West Australia) won his fourth stage of the Tour with victory in the 40km criterium at the inland Moyne Shire town of Koroit.
He defeated Bevin and Avanti’s Patrick Shaw (Ballarat) in the stage which was marred by an eight-man crash on the final turn into the home straight which saw Canberra rider Sean Whitfield taken by ambulance to Warrnambool Hospital with suspected concussion.
With the Tours’ eighth and final stage being a Sunday morning criterium, young Navitas Satalyst rider Jackson Mawby stitched up the Scody King of the Mountains Championship jersey with 17 points, five ahead of tour leader Patrick Bevin.
Mawby is also locked in a tight battle for the CFMEU Rising Star category with Queenslander Daniel Fitter which will be settled in tomorrow’s Port Fairy criterium.
The Teams General Classification will see a tense battle between the Avanti and Charter Mason Giant squads who are on equal terms after stage seven.
Charter Mason Giant’s captain on the road, Tom Robinson, is relishing the battle against his former team.
“Tomorrow we are going for our first stage win of the tour, looking for either Raph (Freienstein) or Dan (Fitter) to finish on the top step,” Robinson said.
“We need to protect Raph’s GC position. To catch Bevin will be a big ask, but we’ll always take our chances.”
“And of course, we are looking to consolidate our National Road Series Teams Aggregate lead. We’ve been fighting tooth and nail with the Avanti Racing Team boys for the Teams General Classification on every stage and tomorrow will be no different.”
ABOUT THE TOUR
Straddling two states, eight stages, double stage days, four criteriums and four road races, the Tour of the Great South Coast runs August 12-16. Event information
Highlights from the Tour of the Great South Coast will be broadcast on the Nine Network’s GEM channel on Sunday 23 August at 12noon AEST and on Fox Sports 3 on Tuesday 25 August at 6:00pm AEST (check local guides). Broadcast schedule
Text via Cycling Australia Media Release
