Schmid has first win for Australian team at Cadel race

[Pelican Press 0]

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Schmid has first win for *********** team at Cadel race

An outstanding one-two combination from the *********** Jayco AlUla cycling team has helped Mauro Schmid to win the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

The reigning Swiss champion took over from the groundwork laid by *********** teammate Chris Harper and soloed to the win on Sunday at Geelong.

It is the first time since the race started in 2015 that the only *********** WorldTour team has won the men’s race.

Their last winner in the women’s Cadel Evans race was Annemiek van Vleuten in 2017.

Asked where this rated in his career, Schmid told the Seven Network “pretty close to the top”.

After he broke away with about 7km left in the 183.8km race, his gap to the chase group hovered at around 10 seconds and at times it did not look enough.

But Schmid, one of the major pre-race favourites, rode superbly on the tricky finishing straight along the Geelong waterfront to beat New Zealander Aaron Gate (XDS Astana) by three seconds.

Gate took out the eight-rider sprint for second as New Zealander Laurence Pithie (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe), the defending champion, finished third.

Schmid prevailed in hot, unsettled conditions, with the temperature in the high 30s and thunder in the area.

Italian rider Andrea Raccagni Novieri went clear early in the race, building a lead of seven minutes.

But the peloton’s lack of concern proved justified when he was swallowed up on the first of four climbs up the steep Challambra Hill landmark, with 70km left.

*********** Olympic track gold medallist Oliver Bleddyn (ARA national team) and Belgian Pieter Serry then attacked and were caught inside 50km to go.

Soon after, Harper joined a four-rider break and with 26km left, he went clear by himself.

Early on the last of the four city circuits in Geelong, Harper still led the peloton by 41 seconds.

He was caught on Challambra, inside the last 10km, and handed over to Schmid.

The Swiss attacked the diminished lead group a couple of kilometres later.

Schmid and Harper attacked together late in the decisive fifth stage at Adelaide’s Tour Down Under earlier this month, but were caught before the Willunga Hill climb.

Jayco AlUla suffered a blow on Friday when Luke Plapp was ruled out of the race due to wrist surgery.

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