Jake Latham
Tinkoff dominate Primes, Team Sky pulls a strong turn and Caleb Ewan (OGE) takes line honours in bunch sprint to finish.
What an exciting race as the pace grew every lap. With the Prime sprint points being held every 5 laps their was no time for a lapse in concentration from the riders in the peloton and they wern’t going to let anyone stay out for too long!
Prime 1 went to number 176 Team Dimension Data rider Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) with a neat finish.
Prime 2 was taken by number 76, Australian Tinkoff rider Jay McCarthy who held off the his competitors in the break away
Prime 3 went to young Australian rider Chris Hamilton on the wildcard team UniSA who went solo to claim the 3rd sprint point in stunning fashion.
and Prime 4 was taken again by another Tinkoff rider 71 Manuele Boaro (ITA) with a brilliant sprint to the line.
As the pressure built in the last 10 laps Team Sky, lead by Peter Kennaugh (GBR) with compatriot Gerraint Thomas tight on his wheel. But Lampre-Merida was not letting them get the better of the field and Orica-GreenEdge battled for control.
When the crowd thought it was all won, a special move by Team Dimension Data split the leaders but no one could hold off Caleb Ewan as he swung off the wheel of his team mate toward the finish line.
Ewan spoke briefly to us at Bicycling Australia after the presentation and said there were no tactics that caught him off guard, “It was a normal lead out that worked out well.”
