WILL Walker’s preparation for the Caterpillar Underground Mining Tour of Tasmania was made up of some downtime in Malaysia but you wouldn’t have known that today.
Fresh from a holiday, the former cycling prodigy won what was arguably the toughest stage of the tour – the 78.5km road race from Ulverstone to Penguin via Gunns Plains.
It capped an impressive treble for Drapac Professional Cycling, which has claimed the past three brutal road races with three different riders, including tour leader Lachlan Norris.
Today’s field grimaced their way through four hill climbs, including a torturous category one which at times seemed never-ending.
It was the hill where Walker made up ground – a remarkable feat considering he is coming off a break from competition after he was forced to pull out of the Budget Forklifts Tour of the Great South Coast in August due to health concerns.
“I was absolutely cactus,” he said of how he felt during the last climb.
“That was one of the hardest stages I’ve done, and it’s probably because I didn’t have the ideal preparation.
“But there’s a few of us in the Drapac team who have got a lot of experience and I did a lot of racing years ago, before my comeback, and I think that helps.”
Walker took out the first leg of the SCODY Cup, the Lakes Oil Tour of Gippsland, which was his comeback event after he prematurely retired from cycling for more than three years due to a heart condition – tachycardia.
It came after a meteoric rise as a teenager – winning the Melbourne to Warrnambool and SCODY Cup
when he was only 18.
His hunger and passion for the sport sparked his return, with Drapac offering the Victorian invaluable support so he could get back on the bike.
The modest Walker downplayed today’s result.
“It’s been a really hard few days, so I think some of the other guys have got tired and they’ve come back down to my level,” he said.
In what was unprecedented for the Ulverstone to Penguin road race, spectators were treated to a bunch finish, with Walker saluting ahead of Jai Crawford (Genesys) and Goodstone Group most aggressive winner Blair Windsor (Team Budget Forklifts).
A leading group of eight formed about 20 kilometres in, eventually stretching out their lead to two minutes and 13 seconds before the peloton plugged away at pulling them back.
By the end of the category one climb, they were caught, with then-leading GC trio Nathan Earle (Genesys), Norris and Mark O’Brien (Team Budget Forklifts) taking the points.
In the meantime, Walker was reining in riders.
“I just saw that steep hill and I thought ‘well it’s going to hurt to go over it slowly and hurt to go over it fast, so I went over it fast’,” he said.
“At the top of the hill, I was by myself and I just managed to dig deep and then slowly make it back to the main group.”
A lead group of five riders – which didn’t include Walker – established a 30-second advantage shortly after the climb but with just over 10kms remaining, they were caught.
It set-up an intriguing finish as a group of about 25 riders came together to contest the speedy finish into Penguin.
In this morning’s race, Tasmanian Ben Grenda’s local knowledge helped him to victory in the 36km Ulverstone criterium.
The Team Polygon Australia member finished ahead of reigning national criterium champion and SCODY Cup leader Anthony Giacoppo, while third was Search2Retain’s Scott Law.
“To get a win here is pretty special,” Grenda said.
“I did this circuit first when I was 13, so I’ve been here a while now.”
Grenda was also awarded the Derrico Cycles criterium jersey while Barry collected the Goodstone Group most aggressive.
The Tour of Tasmania heads to Burnie tomorrow, starting with a CBD and waterfront criterium at 10.30am before a 77.9km road race to the Caterpillar Underground Mining test facility in West Mooreville.
Race Results
Tour of Tasmania (2012) - Stage 6
1. William WALKER (DPC) 2h03:34
2. Jai CRAWFORD (GEN) +0
3. Blair WINDSOR (BFL) +0
4. Nathan EARLE (GEN) +0
5. Chris JORY (GWR) +0
6. Joshua PRETE (DCR) +0
7. Bradley LINFIELD (PLB) +0
8. Jay MCCARTHY (VIS) +0
9. Adam PHELAN (DPC) +0
10. Brodie TALBOT (CNC) +0
Alex CLEMENTS (PGN) +0
Kristian JUEL (EAD) +0
Lachlan NORRIS (DPC) +0
Samuel HORGAN (FNZ) +0
Darren LAPTHORNE (DPC) +0
Ben DYBALL (GEN) +0
Timothy CAMERON (SZT) +4
Matthew CLARK (JWC) +4
Mitchell COOPER (CHM) +4
Campbell FLAKEMORE (GEN) +11
Nick AITKEN (VIS) +36
Dion SMITH (PBR) +1:30
Trent DERECOURT (JWC) +1:30
Andrew ROE (SAS) +1:30
Alexander RAY (TDU) +1:30
Samuel VOLKERS (DCR) +1:30
Jay BOURKE (TDU) +1:30
Patrick LANE (VIS) +1:30
Sam MCCALLUM (PGN) +1:30
Michael CROSBIE (AWS) +1:30
Mathew MARSHALL (TDU) +1:30
Alex WOHLER (TDU) +1:30
Karl EVANS (SAS) +1:30
Cameron BAYLY (STR) +1:35
Jack BECKINSALE (SAS) +2:24
James SZOLLOSI (EAD) +2:40
Oliver MARTIN (PGN) +2:40
Danny PULBROOK (PGN) +2:40
Jared TRIGGS (SKO) +2:40
Eric SHEPPARD (VIS) +2:40
John WALKER (DPC) +2:40
Nathan ELLIOTT (CHM) +2:40
Miles SCOTSON (SAS) +3:28
Steven WAITE (AWS) +3:28
Calvin WATSON (VIS) +3:28
Samuel NELSON (SKO) +3:28
Saxon IRVINE (EAD) +3:28
Jordan DAVIES (SKO) +3:28
Joshua CLARK (TVL) +3:28
Edward WHITE (GWR) +3:28
Oliver KENT-SPARK (JWC) +3:28
Jason SPENCER (BFL) +3:28
Samuel WOOD (DCR) +3:28
Brenton JONES (GEN) +3:28
James RENDALL (CNC) +3:28
Hamish SCHREURS (FNZ) +3:28
Tom KAESLER (SAS) +3:28
Neil VAN DER PLOEG (STR) +3:39
Joshua ALDRIDGE (PBR) +4:39
Josh BERRY (SZT) +5:21
Trevor SPENCER (BFL) +5:21
James EARLY (FNZ) +6:14
Jason RIGG (PGN) +10:58
Jake MCMAHON (PGN) +10:58
Matthew NICHOLSON (TVL) +10:58
Daniel BARRY (FNZ) +10:58
Benjamin HILL (SZT) +10:58
Sam RUTHERFORD (GWR) +10:58
Jamie LACEY (CNC) +10:58
Thomas DONALD (STR) +10:58
Liam HILL (STR) +10:58
Jayden COPP (TDU) +12:37
Andrew CRAWLEY (GWR) +13:06
Scott LAW (STR) +13:06
Ben GRENDA (PGN) +13:06
Jack CUMMINGS (VIS) +13:06
Alex EDMONDSON (SAS) +13:06
Caleb JONES (GWR) +13:06
Liam DOVE (PLB) +13:06
Nicholas WOODS (TDU) +13:06
Malcolm RUDOLPH (DPC) +13:06
Jacob KAUFFMANN (CHM) +13:06
David MELVILLE (DCR) +13:06
Lachlan EDWARDS (SKO) +13:06
Jay DUTTON (SKO) +13:06
James BOAL (JWC) +13:06
James IBRAHIM (PLB) +13:06
Rhys POLLOCK (DPC) +13:06
Roman VAN UDEN (PBR) +13:06
Michael SMITH (TVL) +13:06
Andrew MARGISON (TVL) +13:06
Anthony GIACOPPO (GEN) +13:06
Ben CARMAN (EAD) +13:06
Steven DEL GALLO (JWC) +17:59
Jonathan LOVELOCK (GEN) +17:59
dnf Rowan DEVER (JWC)
dnf James HENRY (AWS)
Average speed of the winner: 38.1 km/h
Number of starters: 122
Riders abandoning the race: 2
General Classification after Stage 6
1. Lachlan NORRIS (DPC) 10h54:39
2. Nathan EARLE (GEN) +48
3. Jay MCCARTHY (VIS) +3:29
4. Darren LAPTHORNE (DPC) +3:58
5. Jai CRAWFORD (GEN) +4:05
6. Ben DYBALL (GEN) +4:14
7. Alex CLEMENTS (PGN) +4:59
8. Samuel HORGAN (FNZ) +6:28
9. Patrick LANE (VIS) +7:18
10. Chris JORY (GWR) +8:02
