What looked like a calm first day of the women's Lexus of Blackburn Herald Sun Tour burst to life in the latter stages yesterday to cause chaos among the peloton.
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With the 94 km Shepparton-to-Shepparton course offering pancake-like flatness for almost its entirety — and hot temperatures clinging to riders like a veil throughout the race due to a lack of strong winds — the peloton remained together for the first 50 km of proceedings.
This was despite repeated attempts to form a breakaway — mostly from the aptly named Roxsolt Attaquer team — with riders yo-yoing off the front of the pack with regularity but never finding a foothold.
That was until the landscape of the stage changed dramatically when Team Tibco - Silicon Valley Bank made a concerted surge as a unit with about 40 km to go in the loop from Welsford St out through Mooroopna, Tatura, Waranga Shores, Harston and back again.
Tibco's move came without the help of Jenelle Crooks after she had abandoned the race earlier in the stage due to a lingering injury, but it was assisted greatly by the Mitchelton-Scott quartet.
The work of Sarah Roy, Jessica Roberts and Gracie Elvin — with reigning general classification champion Lucy Kennedy along for the ride — served as a hammer-blow to the peloton and split the field in two.
Almost immediately those who were caught at the back attempted to lift the tempo, but only Roxsolt's Peta Mullens and Specialized Women's Racing's Matilda Raynolds were lucky enough to bridge the gap and tag on to the leading crew.
Despite the trailing group pulling on the elastic a number of times it finally snapped towards the second intermediate sprint section and almost 50 seconds of overall time was the eventual damage by the time the field pulled back into Welsford St.
But first there was a race to win.
A bunch sprint around a technical finish was always going to favour the experienced heads in the pack, with Astana's ‘Cuban Missile’ Arlenis Sierra Canadilla breaking away in the final metres to collect the stage one prize and move into the second — and final — section of the tour with the yellow and Bright Brewery green jerseys for general classification and sprint leader in her keeping.
Anna Trevisi of team Ale BTC Ljubljana slid past the line in second, while Pro Racing Sunshine Coast's Ruby Roseman-Gannon did her overall and Visit Victoria best young rider classification hopes no harm with a third-placed finish — even if the white jersey was given to Roberts after the race.
“I think they presented it to the rider who came fourth but I think it's a mistake because I accidentally put my birthday as ‘88 not ‘98,” Roseman-Gannon said.
“So I think I am in it but I'm not entirely sure.”
After losing the rest of her team to the peleton split, Roseman-Gannon fought hard for a clear line into the final sprint among the other contenders.
“I wasn't too fazed, it would have been nice to have a teammate (in the final sprint) but things happen and my teammates are pretty young, they're all two years younger than me and I'm only 21. I was really thankful for all of the work they did at the start of the race and then I just had to try and finish it off at the end and got third,” she said.
“I'm a bit hazy on (the finish), I tend to forget things but basically I was just surfing wheels and I saw the 1k to go and I thought we had a bit more time on my Garmin so I (thought) I better get to the front.
“I just sort of squeezed in in front of Arlenis and then she got the perfect springboard off my wheel, but I didn't want to open up too early and then I kind of got boxed, so I don't know, sprints, what can I say?”
Tibco's race-making move was rewarded with the Quest Shepparton most combative red jersey draped around the shoulders of Nina Kessler ahead of today's gruelling stage at Falls Creek.
Sierra Canadilla — who claimed the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race title last year and finished second in the same race last week — will look to hold on for another triumph on Australian soil today.
“Maybe Australia gives me luck,” she said via a translator after the race.
“But I'm very happy.
“Tomorrow is a very hard stage but we'll work as a team and see what happens, because it is a very long climb, but we will see how the legs will respond.”
