Nicola Rutzou
The inaugural ProVelo Super League reached its halfway mark over the weekend with Round 4, the Harbour City GP in Sydney.
In the women’s league,Alli Anderson of Butterfields Ziptrak Racing delivered a standout performance to win the Harbour City GP. A long-range breakaway on the final stage at Pheasant Wood Motorsport Park secured her GC victory and brought her closer to the League leader, Sophie Marr of Praties Cycling Team.
In the men’s league, in front of their home crowd, Cam Scott delivered a stellar performance for his team CCACHE X BODYWRAP, winning the final two stages and securing the overall GC title. Scott’s dominant display moves him into second place overall with 260 points, closing the gap to Ward, who still leads with 381 points.
Stage 1 – Sydney Motorsport Park Circuit
Sophie Marr of Praties Cycling Team won with a long-range sprint in front of an excited crowd at the Sydney Motorsport Park circuit.
At the opening of the race, a strong headwind largely neutralised the bunch along the climb from the start/finish line, but that did not discourage Kirsty Watts of Meridian Blue from attacking.
The Praties Cycling Team, Butterfields Ziptrak Racing and Meridian Blue were all active at the front of the race. Praties had a strong lead-out for Marr, who launched early and was challenged by Lynch but managed to hold steady and take a narrow win.
In the men’s race, attacks were non-stop before the largest gap of the day was established by Tynan Shannon of Team Royal Bikes and Sam Bush of New Energy Racing, who held a gap of roughly 15 seconds.
The CCACHE X BODYWRAP team was ever present at the front, taking to the start line with three strong sprint options in Cameron Scott, Kurt Eather, and John Carter. The ARA Skip Capital team challenged them for position, but the older, stronger legs prevailed heading into the intermediate sprints, foreshadowing the finish.
In the final laps, CCACHE reeled in Shannon and Bush. They entered the final few hundred metres with a stacked line-up. Kurt Eather was the final lead-out for Cam Scott, but Scott was unable to come around. He took second behind his team-mate Eather, with new recruit to the Cycling Development Foundation team Craig Wiggins in third.
Stage 2 – Cronulla circuit
In front of an appreciative crowd, the women put on an aggressive race, with all teams looking very keen to split the race up and make the sprinters earn their victory on the iconic Cronulla circuit.
Nicole Duncan, riding as an individual, was ever present at the front, making and following moves all race. She bridged across to the most threatening breakaway, which contained riders from Praties Cycling Team, Butterfields Ziptrak Racing, and Meridian Blue.
Praties, with full confidence in their sprinter Sophie Marr, wound the breakaway back, which included their teammate, to set up a showdown between the big three sprinters.
Marr launched early on the final uphill drag to the line, challenged by the familiar names of Keely Bennett of Meridian Blue and Odette Lynch of Butterfields Ziptrak Racing. Marr was too strong, taking the win ahead of Bennett and Lynch.
Starting immediately after the women’s race concluded, the men’s race was shortened slightly to allow them to finish before the sun went down. With less time to make the difference, the riders wasted no time before going on the attack.
The Brennan squad was constantly looking for moves to apply pressure to the stacked CCACHE X BODYWRAP team. Brennan rider Brendon Davids was strong out front, holding an advantage of up to 20 seconds for half the race. While the gap wasn’t dramatic, he held very steady and had the CCACHE squad sweating and spectators thinking they might be treated to a breakaway win.
Davids was reeled in with a lap and a half to go. CCACHE X BODYWRAP, after spending half the race on the front, lifted the pace and strung the remaining riders out single file into the finish. Cam Scott of CCACHE X BODYWRAP led over the crest of the drag to the line to take a powerful win, his team-mate and Stage 1 winner Kurt Eather taking 3rd.
Stage 3: Pheasant Wood circuit
The Pheasant Wood circuit was a late addition to the round after replacing the Akuna Bay circuit just days out of the Sydney round.
In the women’s race, there were attacks from the get-go, with riders losing contact at the back of the bunch in the opening laps removed from the short 1.3km circuit.
Many attempts to establish a breakaway were stifled before a group containing second overall in the League, Talia Appleton of Praties Cycling Team, Alli Anderson of Butterfields Ziptrak Racing, Hannah Gianatti of ARA Skip Capital, Mia Williams of Meridian Blue and Aberdeen Mclain of the Women’s Cycling Development Initiative Balmoral. The quintet worked well together and established a lead of over 2 minutes over the Praties-led peloton.
Appleton was very active, seeking the bonus seconds on offer at the intermediate sprints, and sat in the virtual lead for the majority of the race. Coming into the finish, however, it was Anderson who unleashed a powerful sprint to take the win, the 10 bonus seconds on offer, and the final Harbour City GC by the smallest of margins. Finishing on equal time with Appleton, the final place was decided on a countback.
The men’s event saw a similarly dynamic race that constantly changed form throughout the 72 laps of the 1.3km circuit. It was nonstop action at the front of the race. A lead group of 5 formed early on, with most expecting their efforts to be short-lived. They hung on, however, and as riders jumped across from the CCACHE X BODYWRAP-led peloton, the group out front and the gap started to balloon.
The breakaway eventually settled at approximately 15 riders, with Team Brennan and ARA Skip Capital well represented. CCACHE X BODYWRAP put GC leader Cam Scott into the front selection and drove hard to extend the gap.
Connor Doyle of Butterfields Ziptrak Racing launched with just under 1km to go, holding a slender lead into the final straight. It looked like he would hold on before Cam Scott launched his sprint, coming past Doyle with only 20m remaining. Tristan Saunders of Team Brennan held onto Scott’s wheel to take second, with Doyle coming across in third.
After the four rounds of the PSL, the individual league leaderboards are:
Women’s Individual Classification
1. Sophie MARR Praties Cycling Team 465 pt
2. Talia APPLETON Praties Cycling Team 401 pt
3. Alli ANDERSON Butterfields Ziptrak Racing 332 pt
Men’s Individual Classification
1. Jack WARD Team Brennan 381 pt
2. Cameron Scott CACHE x BODYWRAP 260 pt
3. Blake Agnoletto Team Brennan 256 pt
