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British national cycling champion Peter Kennaugh took out the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday afternoon.
REPORT: KENNAUGH WINS EVANS RACE
It was an incredible ride from Kennaugh, who went solo for most of the last lap to claim the win by a couple of seconds.
Unfortunate for sprinters like Leigh Howard and Niccolo Bonafazio, who did superbly over the climbs to stay in the leading group contending for the win.
After a hotly contested Tour Down Under saw Orica-GreenEDGE dominate, can they continue their dominance at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race? Join The Roar’s live coverage from 12:15pm AEDT.
From the dry heat of Adelaide, to the wet and windy Geelong, the riders will face a very different set of weather conditions when they take the start of their 174 kilometre journey around Barwon Heads and Torquay, before finally finishing with three difficult loops around Geelong.
The course is exactly the same as last year, which should result in some extremely interesting racing.
Last year it was taken out by punchy sprinter Gianni Meersman, with Simon Clarke and Nathan Haas rounding out the podium. With Meersman not making the trip, we will see a new winner this year, potentially another rider suited to the hilly circuits, or a rider of a more pure sprinting ability.
Caleb Ewan chimed in with his opinion about a potential sprint finish at today’s race after his win on Stage 6 at the Tour Down Under.
“There are a few hills in the last few circuits. To be honest I don’t think you’re going to see a Caleb and Cav head-to-head, it’s going to be a bit too hard. I don’t think Cav is going to be in super form for the road, he’s been doing a lot of track stuff.”
While the majority of the course is not hilly, the final circuits around Geelong do contain two key uphill sections of road, at Challambra Crescent and Melville Crescent. These climbs are then immediately followed by fast descent, so if riders want to break away they may be able to get a quick gap and hold it.
Both climbers average out at around 10 per cent and last for over 500 metres (Challambra Crescent is one kilometre in length), which should all but remove any pure sprinter from the race.
Expect attacks on these climbs, but I think a group of riders should be able to shut down any solo attacks on the descent following.
After a spectacular race for Simon Gerrans at the Santos Tour Down Under, he has to be classified as the raging hot favourite once again. His ability to get up the short climbs, and be able to recover enough to sprint well is a skill not many in the World Tour can match, and with only a few of the stronger teams staying on after Down Under, he should not be matched if all goes to plan.
Two other riders that could potentially hassle Gerrans in a small reduced finish include Italian Enrico Battaglin (Team Lotto NL-Jumbo) and Nathan Haas (Dimension Data).
Battaglin rode in Adelaide and will be better off with racing in his legs. He will also love the wet weather being a leveller between the European riders and the Australians.
Not many people would give this man a hope of beating some of the more fancied Australians, but Battaglin has the ability to climb and has a punchy sprint at the end to take the challenge to Gerrans.
He finished fifth into Vicenza on a wet and hilly Stage 12 of last year’s Giro D Italia.
He has also won a mountain top finish at the same race taking Stage 14 of the 2014 Giro with an incredible sprint in the final stages, beating climbers like Ryder Hesjdeal, Nicholas Roche and Dario Cataldo from the break of the day.
After a disappointing Tour Down Under for Haas, he will be looking to give his a new team a boost heading into the start of the European season. As I mentioned before, Haas finished third here a year ago, so is familiar with the roads and the way that the race can go.
This is a year where he will be looking to kick on and get more chances to ride for himself. A good result here would be the perfect start.
Other riders to look out for include Tiago Machado and Rein Taarame (Katusha), Ben Swift and Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), Alessandro De Marchi and Rohan Dennis (BMC), Pim Ligthart and Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal), Ryder Hesjedal (Trek), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling), Cameron Meyer (Dimension Data) and Damiano Cunego (Nippo Vini-Fantini).
Join The Roar’s live coverage of the race from 12:15pm AEDT.
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